What Does Jeremiah 26:16 Mean in the King James?
Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets; This man is not worthy to die: for he hath spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.
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 verdict pivots on “name”: the people hear Jeremiah’s words as bearing the LORD’s nature and authority, so his speech does not make him disposable.
THE MEANING
Here, a life-or-death verdict pivots when speech is heard as bearing the LORD’s name, his nature and authority. The speaker’s difficult words are not treated as sufficient reason to kill him; the source those words represent matters to the judgment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a disturbing message, by itself, makes its speaker deserving of death.
THE ROOT
דִּבֶּר
dibbēr
GROWS FROM
דבר
דָּבַר (dāḇar): to speak or utter; the same root also yields a word or matter.
“spoken” in this verse is dibbēr. This root can name both speaking and a word or matter, so the speech here carries substance: the hearers treat it as consequential enough to alter a life-or-death verdict. In the phrase “in the name of the LORD,” the speech is also tied to the nature and authority represented by that name.
ALSO GROWS
dāḇār: Word, matter, thing.
דָּבָר
The same root lets speech and matter meet: the spoken word is consequential, not mere sound.
medabbēr: Speaking; one who speaks.
מְדַבֵּר
This form keeps attention on the act of speaking, the act the people weigh in their verdict.
THE PATTERN
Speech attributed to God puts both its source and the hearers’ response under discernment.
When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.And Micaiah said, As the LORD liveth, what the LORD saith unto me, that will I speak.But if it be of God, ye can not overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.THE THREAD
I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.The Hebrew root דָּבַר (dāḇar, “speak; word”) underlies both “my words” and “he shall speak” here, as it does Jeremiah’s “hath spoken.” This opens the question beneath the people’s verdict: whether the words in a prophet’s mouth carry the LORD’s own command.
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