What Does Jeremiah 2:26 Mean in the King James?
As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets,
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Being found turns a hidden act into the shame of the whole house, reaching every title within it.
THE MEANING
When what is concealed is found, shame reaches beyond the act into the whole house around it. Kings, princes, priests, and prophets share the exposure; rank and sacred office do not stand apart from it. This speaks now wherever what is hidden comes into view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that authority or sacred office can keep the one who bears it outside exposure: the kings, priests, and prophets are named within the house’s shame.
THE ROOT
הֹבִישׁוּ
hōvîšû
GROWS FROM
בוש
To be ashamed, disappointed, or confounded; in a causative form, to put to shame.
“ashamed” in this verse is hōvîšû. The verse places the thief in shame when found, then uses a causative form of the same root for Israel, carrying shame as both an experience and something brought upon a whole house. The name Israel is linked in Genesis 32:28 with striving with God; that identity does not shield the house from what is found.
ALSO GROWS
yēvōš: He will be ashamed.
יֵבֹשׁ
This form shares the root בוש and names shame as the experience of the one exposed.
hôvîš: He put to shame.
הוֹבִישׁ
This causative form shares the root בוש and shows shame as something brought upon another.
יִמָּצֵא
yimmāṣēʾ
GROWS FROM
מצא
To find, encounter, or come upon.
The thief’s being found is the turning point: discovery brings what was hidden into contact with the world outside it. The same root holds finding and being found, joining exposure directly to the shame that follows.
ALSO GROWS
māṣāʾ: He found or encountered.
מָצָא
This is the root’s basic action, the discovery that sets the verse’s comparison in motion.
nimṣāʾ: He was found; he was present.
נִמְצָא
This passive form shares the root מצא and keeps finding and being brought into view within the same word family.
THE PATTERN
Concealment cannot keep what is hidden from becoming visible or reaching the people and structures bound to it.
Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.THE THREAD
But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.Jeremiah says the thief is ashamed כִּי יִמָּצֵא (kî yimmāṣēʾ, “when he is found”); Numbers says wrongdoing will “find you out,” using the same root מָצָא (māṣāʾ, “find”). In both, finding marks the instant concealment yields to exposure.
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