What Does Jeremiah 2:35 Mean in the King James?
Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned.
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
The claim “I am clean” does not close the case; it puts the claim itself before judgment.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the moment you call yourself clean and expect anger to pass because of that verdict. Its answer is a summons into judgment: the claim “I have not missed” is itself examined. Self-description does not end the encounter; the truth of the missing stands in it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that declaring yourself innocent makes the accusation disappear and guarantees that anger will turn away.
THE ROOT
נִקֵּיתִי
niqqēti
GROWS FROM
נקה
nāqāh
Be clean, clear, or free from guilt.
English “innocent” can sound like a settled status, while נִקֵּיתִי (niqqēti, “I am clean or cleared”) carries the speaker’s claim of having been cleared. This root links being clean with being cleared, so the verse turns on the difference between announcing cleanness and standing cleared when challenged.
ALSO GROWS
nāqî: Clean, innocent.
נָקִי
The speaker claims this condition as a fact, but the verse does not let the claim settle the matter.
yənaqqeh: He clears or acquits; in Exodus 34:7, “will by no means clear.”
יְנַקֶּה
This branch shows that clearance is a matter of judgment, not something secured by declaring oneself clean.
חָטָאתִי
ḥāṭāʾtî
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥāṭāʾ
Miss; miss the mark.
“I have not sinned” is חָטָאתִי (ḥāṭāʾtî, “I have missed”) in the negative: the speaker denies the miss itself. The root keeps the concrete sense of missing, where English “sin” can sound like a fixed label.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēṭʾ: A miss; missing.
חֵטְא
This is the thing the speaker says is absent, even as the claim is brought into judgment.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Missing; also an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
The branch preserves the same root connection between the missing and what addresses it.
נִשְׁפָּט
nišpāṭ
GROWS FROM
שפט
šāphaṭ
Judge, govern, or pass judgment.
“plead” in this verse is nišpāṭ. The answer to the declaration is juridical: God enters judgment over the speaker’s assertion. The verse does not present anger as something turned away by merely claiming its cause is absent; the denial itself comes under scrutiny.
ALSO GROWS
mišpāṭ: Judgment, justice.
מִשְׁפָּט
The dispute is framed as a matter to be judged, not settled by self-description.
šōphēṭ: Judge.
שֹׁפֵט
The shared root makes clear that “plead” here carries the force of a judgment proceeding.
THE PATTERN
A claim of cleanness cannot erase the missing it denies; the truth brings that claim into the open.
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.THE THREAD
Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.The same root, נקה (nāqāh, “be clean or clear”), lies behind Jeremiah’s “I am innocent” and Exodus’s “clear the guilty.” The connection sharpens the distinction between declaring yourself clean and being cleared in judgment.
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