What Does Jeremiah 23:38 Mean in the King James?
But since ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus saith the LORD; Because ye say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of 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 phrase they keep pinning on the LORD becomes the weight their speech must carry.
THE MEANING
When you put a saying under the LORD’s name, this verse holds that wording accountable to the LORD. Here, repeating “the burden of the LORD” is itself the violation, even though it sounds like religious language.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A phrase does not become the LORD’s word simply because it bears the LORD’s name.
THE ROOT
מַשָּׂא
maśśāʾ
GROWS FROM
נשׂא
To lift, carry, or bear.
“burden” in this verse is maśśāʾ. מַשָּׂא grows from נשׂא, “to lift, carry, bear”; in prophetic speech it can name an utterance borne. Here, the speakers keep lifting that label onto the LORD after being told not to, and their invocation itself becomes the weight at issue.
ALSO GROWS
nāśāʾ: To lift, carry, or bear.
נָשָׂא
This verb supplies the physical motion beneath מַשָּׂא: a word called a burden is something taken up and carried.
nāśîʾ: A prince or leader; one raised up.
נָשִׂיא
The same root can name a person lifted into prominence, showing how נשׂא ranges from bearing weight to being elevated.
THE PATTERN
Words spoken under the LORD’s name return as a weight of accountability to the speaker.
But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.THE THREAD
The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.Isaiah’s heading uses the same Hebrew noun, מַשָּׂא (maśśāʾ, “burden” or prophetic utterance), for a message borne. That connection shows why Jeremiah’s warning turns on the speakers’ repeated use of this phrase, rather than making the word itself forbidden in every setting.
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