What Does Jeremiah 23:11 Mean in the King James?
For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.
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 word for “profane” also belongs to the word-family used for “hypocrite,” joining defilement with false religious appearance.
THE MEANING
Corruption can live among those who hold religious authority, inside the place named as God’s own house. Their wrongdoing is found there; neither their position nor the sacred setting conceals it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that religious office or sacred surroundings make a person’s conduct clean by association.
THE ROOT
חָנֵפוּ
ḥānēp̄û
GROWS FROM
חנף
To be profane, defile, or pollute.
“profane” in this verse is ḥānēp̄û. This word-family also describes the godless or the hypocrite, holding defilement and false religious appearance together. The charge reaches into the house itself: religious status does not make the corruption clean.
ALSO GROWS
ḥānēp̄: Profane, godless; also rendered “hypocrite.”
חָנֵף
This branch shows that the word for being profane can describe a person whose outward religious role conceals an inwardly corrupted state.
ḥănēp̄āh: Profaneness or pollution.
חֲנֵפָה
This noun makes explicit the defilement carried by the prophet and priest into the house.
רָעָתָם
rāʿātām
GROWS FROM
רעע
To be bad or do harm; evil and harmfulness.
The word-family can name both what is morally bad and what brings harm. Their wickedness therefore carries the force of damage within the house, not merely a breach of propriety.
ALSO GROWS
raʿ: Bad or evil.
רַע
This adjective names the quality of what is found in the house.
rāʿāh: Evil, harm, or calamity.
רָעָה
This noun shows the harmful force carried by the wrongdoing the verse exposes.
THE PATTERN
Sacred place and religious standing do not conceal corruption within the community; it is brought into view there.
He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?THE THREAD
So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish:The Hebrew root חנף (ḥ-n-p), meaning to be profane or polluted, also gives the word rendered “hypocrite” in Job 8:13. That shared root joins defilement with false piety, showing how corruption can inhabit a religious role.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us