What Does Jeremiah 22:27 Mean in the King James?
But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return.
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 Hebrew says they “lift their living soul” toward home, yet the same verse says they will not return.
THE MEANING
The whole living self can be lifted toward a place of return, and the way back can still be closed. The verse holds both truths at once: longing is real, but wanting does not guarantee arrival.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that sincere longing is enough to make return possible: the desire is present, yet the return is withheld.
THE ROOT
מְנַשְּׂאִים אֶת־נַפְשָׁם
menasse'im et-nafsham
GROWS FROM
נשא
Lift, carry, bear.
The Hebrew makes “desire” a picture of lifting their נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, living soul) toward the land. The root נשא (nasa, lift or carry) lets longing appear as something the whole person carries upward, even while the verse closes the route.
ALSO GROWS
massa: A burden; something carried.
מַשָּׂא
The same root connects what is lifted with what is borne, giving their longing the weight of something carried toward home.
nasi: A prince or leader; one lifted up.
נָשִׂיא
This related form carries the sense of being raised up, echoing the upward movement inside the verse’s image of desire.
לָשׁוּב
lashuv
GROWS FROM
שוב
Turn back, return.
The verse repeats שוב (shuv, return): first in the land they aim to return to, then in the blunt denial, “they shall not return.” The same movement is named twice, with the second use cutting across the first; longing cannot by itself turn a closed passage into homecoming.
ALSO GROWS
shav: Returned; turned back.
שָׁב
This form names the completed movement that the verse’s final words withhold.
heshiv: Bring back; restore.
הֵשִׁיב
The causative form shows return as something that can be brought about, underscoring that desire alone does not accomplish it.
THE PATTERN
Longing can point homeward while the way home remains barred.
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!THE THREAD
And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.This verse uses שוב (shuv, return) in the hope that the children will come again to their own border. Beside the refusal in Jeremiah 22:27, the shared root holds both the closed return and the promised return.
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