What Does Jeremiah 23:15 Mean in the King James?
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.
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 named center of wholeness becomes a source of pollution: what its prophets send out reaches the whole land, and bitterness becomes their own portion.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the reader now: profaneness issues from Jerusalem’s prophets and reaches the whole land. The prophets are made to consume wormwood and gall, so the corruption they release returns as bitter portion. Jerusalem bears a name associated with wholeness, yet its message carries pollution outward.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A sacred place or trusted title guarantees that what comes from it is clean.
THE ROOT
חֲנֻפָּה
ḥănuppāh
GROWS FROM
חנף
ḥ-n-p
To be profane, godless, or polluted.
This word names a polluted source whose influence moves outward into the land. The root connects profaneness with pollution, so the damage is not contained in the prophets’ private state; it spreads through what comes from them.
ALSO GROWS
ḥānēp̄: Profane or godless.
חָנֵף
This branch describes the character of the source from which profaneness goes forth.
ḥānap̄: To act profanely or pollute.
חָנַף
This verbal branch makes the profaneness an active contamination that reaches beyond its source.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete; the name carries the association of shalom, wholeness.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name Yerushalayim carries the shalom association of wholeness. The verse sets that nature against what issues from its prophets: profaneness flows from the place associated with wholeness and spreads through the land.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This is the wholeness association carried in the city’s name, making the pollution that goes forth a sharp rupture.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the contrast plain: the name points toward wholeness while the message carries pollution.
מַאֲכִיל
maʾăḵîl
GROWS FROM
אכל
ʾ-k-l
To eat or consume; in this form, to cause someone to eat.
“feed” in this verse is maʾăḵîl. The Hebrew verb is causative: the prophets are made to consume the wormwood. Their consequence is not left abstract; the bitterness is placed before them as food and drink.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāḵal: To eat or consume.
אָכַל
The root beneath “feed” is the act of eating, so the judgment is experienced through what the prophets themselves consume.
maʾăḵāl: Food; something eaten.
מַאֲכָל
This branch brings the image into focus: what is given to them becomes their portion.
THE PATTERN
What corrupt guides send outward spreads through the people and returns as consequence.
The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.THE THREAD
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.Jeremiah 9:15 repeats the wormwood-and-gall image and uses the root אכל (ʾāḵal, “eat or consume”) in “feed.” Read beside 23:15, the bitter portion reaches the people as well as the prophets from whom the profaneness goes forth.
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