What Does Jeremiah 25:14 Mean in the King James?
For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands.
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 word rendered “recompense” shares its root with “wholeness,” so repayment reads as a measure brought to completion by what the hands have done.
THE MEANING
Power cannot make its actions disappear: deeds and the work of one’s own hands become the measure returned, whether the actor is a ruler or a nation. The verse speaks now wherever someone assumes that using others carries no answer.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it dissolves is that a nation or ruler can use others and remain beyond the reach of consequence.
THE ROOT
וְשִׁלַּמְתִּי
veshillamti
GROWS FROM
שלם
Be complete or whole; in this verb form, make good or repay.
“recompense” in this verse is veshillamti. The verb for recompensing shares its root with shalom, wholeness. Repayment carries the sense of a measure brought to completion, and the verse names that measure as their deeds and the work of their own hands.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, completeness, well-being
שָׁלוֹם
It reveals the root shared with recompense: the return completes a measure.
shillem: He repaid or made good
שִׁלֵּם
This is the same repayment sense expressed in the verse.
shalem: Whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
It carries the root’s sense of a measure made complete.
פָּעֳלָם
po'alam
GROWS FROM
פעל
Do, work, act.
The verse names their deeds as work, then echoes that idea with the work of their own hands. Its repeated language binds the return to what they themselves produce.
ALSO GROWS
po'el: Worker, one who acts
פֹּעֵל
The branch names the one whose actions the verse holds to account.
pe'ullah: Work, labor, deed
פְּעֻלָּה
It keeps the emphasis on actions as work done and attributable to their makers.
THE PATTERN
What people do becomes the measure by which their actions return to them.
Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.Who will render to every man according to his deeds:THE THREAD
And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD.The same verb, וְשִׁלַּמְתִּי (veshillamti, “I will repay”), appears here in Jeremiah 51:24. The shared root שלם (sh-l-m, “be whole; repay”) joins both verses in the image of actions returning to complete their measure.
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