What Does Jeremiah 22:13 Mean in the King James?
Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;
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
This house is built out of another person’s unpaid labor.
THE MEANING
A home or success can rise while justice is absent from its foundation. The person’s service does not become free just because the builder withholds the wages owed. The verse names that arrangement as woe in the present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that an impressive, secure house proves its builder obtained it rightly.
THE ROOT
צֶדֶק
tsedeq
GROWS FROM
צ־ד־ק
ṣ-d-q
To be right or just; alignment.
The verse says the house is built without tsedeq, without the alignment the English word “unrighteousness” can leave abstract. The house itself carries the mark of what was withheld to build it.
ALSO GROWS
tsaddiq: A righteous or aligned person.
צַדִּיק
The builder’s conduct is measured against a way of being aligned, not simply against the appearance of success.
tsedaqah: Righteousness or justice expressed in action.
צְדָקָה
This branch brings alignment into what a person does, including how another person’s labor is treated.
מִשְׁפָּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
ש־פ־ט
sh-p-t
To judge or decide; to establish what is just.
“wrong” in this verse is mishpat. The chambers are built “without mishpat”, without justice or right judgment. The word links the private house to the public measure of justice: even a person’s rooms reveal whether that measure is present.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: To judge or govern justly.
שָׁפַט
It points to the action of judging fairly that is absent from the way the house is built.
shofet: A judge or one who governs.
שֹׁפֵט
This branch shows that mishpat is a standard for how power is exercised, including by the person who controls another’s pay.
יַעֲבֹד
ya'avod
GROWS FROM
ע־ב־ד
ʿ-b-d
To work or serve.
“service” in this verse is ya'avod. The neighbor is made to serve, from the same root that names work and a servant. The verse makes the labor relation visible: one person’s house grows through another person’s work, while the wage that should answer that work is withheld.
ALSO GROWS
eved: A servant or worker.
עֶבֶד
This branch names the person placed in service by the builder’s arrangement.
avodah: Work or service.
עֲבֹדָה
This branch names the labor itself, the very contribution the house depends on.
THE PATTERN
A household secured through another person’s withheld wages stands under judgment regardless of its outward strength.
Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the LORD, and it be sin unto thee.Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.THE THREAD
Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?Jeremiah 22:13 names the house as built without צֶדֶק (tsedeq, alignment) and without מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, justice). Verse 15 uses those same roots positively: doing justice and righteousness is what stands beside a cedar palace as the measure of a reign.
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