What Does Jeremiah 23:27 Mean in the King James?
Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.
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 verse reveals forgetting as an exchange: retold visions can replace the nature of God with the nature of another master.
THE MEANING
Repeated spiritual claims can train you to forget God’s nature and recognize another master in its place. “My name” holds more than a label; it carries the character of the One being forgotten. The verse speaks now wherever trusted voices make repetition feel like proof of divine authority.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A claim is not God’s voice simply because it comes as a dream and is repeated by someone trusted.
THE ROOT
לְהַשְׁכִּיחֵנִי
ləhaškîḥēnî
GROWS FROM
ש־כ־ח
š-k-ḥ
To forget or let slip from mind; in the causative form, to cause someone to forget.
“cause to forget / have forgotten” in this verse is ləhaškîḥēnî. The verse places the causative form beside the ordinary form: some voices aim to make forgetting happen, and the fathers’ forgetting is its inherited result. English can make this sound like a simple lapse, while the shared root links influence and outcome.
ALSO GROWS
shāḵaḥ: To forget.
שָׁכַח
The fathers’ verb comes from this root, showing the forgetting that the verse says is repeated.
hiškîaḥ: To cause someone to forget.
הִשְׁכִּיחַ
This causative branch reveals that the dreams are presented as a means of producing forgetfulness, not merely accompanying it.
בַּעַל
baʿal
GROWS FROM
ב־ע־ל
b-ʿ-l
To own or possess; as a noun, an owner, master, or husband.
The rival name carries the sense of master or owner, so the exchange reaches beyond labels to the question of whose authority claims the people. “My name” holds God’s nature, while Baal names another mastery.
ALSO GROWS
baʿal: Owner, master, or husband; also the name Baal.
בַּעַל
The verse’s replacement name carries the weight of a rival master, making the forgetting an exchange of allegiance.
bāʿal: To own, possess, or rule over; to be a husband.
בָּעַל
This verbal branch brings out the sense of possession behind the title: the people are being turned toward another claim of authority.
THE PATTERN
When God’s nature is forgotten, a substitute can receive the allegiance that belonged to God.
Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.THE THREAD
Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.Both verses use שׁכח (sh-k-ḥ, “forget”): Jeremiah 2:32 asks how God’s people can let him slip from mind, while Jeremiah 23:27 shows voices helping that forgetting take hold. The comparison with ornaments and a bride’s attire makes the loss feel like a rupture in what is held close.
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