What Does Jeremiah 25:6 Mean in the King James?
And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt.
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 exposes the maker’s reversal: the hands make the god, then the maker’s labor and body bow to it.
THE MEANING
The verse traces allegiance from pursuit into service and bodily bowing: what your hands make can become what your hands serve. That divided allegiance provokes God. The same sentence holds a promise: “I will do you no hurt.”
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what you make or invest in can safely claim your service.
THE ROOT
לְעָבְדָם
le’avdam
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿavad means to work, labor, or serve.
“serve” in this verse is le’avdam. The root holds work, service, and servitude together. Beside “the works of your hands,” it sharpens the reversal: human labor makes what the maker then enters into service to.
ALSO GROWS
avodah: work, labor, or service
עֲבֹדָה
It shows that serving these gods involves labor and devotion, not only an inward opinion.
eved: servant
עֶבֶד
The servant word grows from the same root as serving, bringing the person’s posture into view.
מַעֲשֵׂי
ma’asei
GROWS FROM
עשה
ʿAsah means to do or make.
“works” in this verse is ma’asei. Ma’aseh can name both an act and a made thing. With “your hands,” the verse brings the deed and its product close together: what people make can become what they serve.
ALSO GROWS
ma’aseh: deed, work, or thing made
מַעֲשֶׂה
This noun makes the link between human action and its result explicit.
ʿasah: did or made
עָשָׂה
The verb names the making that lies beneath the “works” attributed to human hands.
וּלְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֹת
ulehishtachavot
GROWS FROM
שחה
Shachah means to bow low or prostrate oneself.
The word translated “worship” carries a bodily posture: bowing down. The verse’s sequence moves from going after, to serving, to placing the body low before another power.
ALSO GROWS
hishtachavah: bowing down or prostration
הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה
It names the posture expressed by the worship in this verse.
mishtachaveh: one who bows down
מִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה
It shows the same root describing the person taking that posture.
THE PATTERN
When human making is treated as ultimate, the maker’s labor and allegiance turn toward the thing made.
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god.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
They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.Jeremiah’s “works” and the Psalm’s “make” share the root עשה (ʿasah, “do” or “make”). The Psalm completes the reversal: the maker becomes like the thing made, showing how service to a hand-made god reshapes the one who serves it.
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