What Does Jeremiah 23:23 Mean in the King James?
Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?
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
Distance measures where you feel God, not the reach of God’s presence.
THE MEANING
The LORD is God when you feel close and when God feels far away. Your sense of distance does not set the boundary of God’s presence or sight.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that feeling far from God means God has left or cannot see you.
THE ROOT
מִקָּרוֹב
miqqārōv
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
Approach, draw near.
The same root forms words for approaching and for something brought near. So “at hand” carries the sense of nearness as approach, while the question holds that nearness together with God’s presence afar.
ALSO GROWS
qārab: Approach, draw near.
קָרַב
The verb gives the nearness in the verse a sense of movement toward, not just closeness in space.
qorbān: Offering, something brought near.
קָרְבָּן
This related word preserves the root’s movement of bringing near, showing how the idea extends beyond physical distance.
מֵרָחֹק
mērāḥōq
GROWS FROM
רחק
r-ḥ-q
Be distant, be far away.
“afar off” in this verse is mērāḥōq. The word names distance, not absence: the question asks whether the far place lies outside God’s reach, and its implied answer is no. Near and far are both within the range of God’s presence.
ALSO GROWS
rāḥōq: Far, distant.
רָחוֹק
This adjective names the far end of the contrast in the verse.
hirḥīq: Move or put far away.
הִרְחִיק
This related verb shows distance as something that can be made or extended, yet the verse does not make it a limit on God.
THE PATTERN
No distance a person can travel or hide within places them beyond God’s presence.
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:THE THREAD
Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.The next verse makes the near-and-far question concrete: no secret place escapes God’s sight, and God fills heaven and earth. Distance does not create a boundary around God’s presence.
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