What Does Jeremiah 26:17 Mean in the King James?
Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to all the assembly of the people, saying,
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
A gathered crowd is not yet a settled verdict; the elders rise and speak into it.
THE MEANING
A public gathering remains open while another voice can reach everyone in it. The elders rise and address the assembly itself. Their words show how a community’s direction is shaped by who speaks within it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the belief that a gathering has already become one mind: the elders still rise and address all of it.
THE ROOT
קְהַל
qĕhal
GROWS FROM
קהל
qahal
To assemble or gather together.
The verse names the people as a gathered whole, not merely a crowd in the background. The elders address that whole assembly, making their speech part of its shared public moment.
ALSO GROWS
qāhāl: A gathered community.
קָהָל
This is the noun behind the assembly addressed in the verse.
haqhel: To bring people together.
הַקְהֵל
The related verb shows the assembly as people gathered into one body, rather than people who happen to be nearby.
וַיָּקֻמוּ
wayyaqumu
GROWS FROM
קום
qum
To rise, stand, or be established.
“rose up” in this verse is wayyaqumu. The elders’ rising is the physical beginning of their intervention. This root also carries the sense of establishing or causing something to stand, so their posture marks a public countervoice entering the moment.
ALSO GROWS
heqim: To make something stand or set it in place.
הֵקִים
The root links standing with establishing; the elders’ rise signals that another account is being set before the assembly.
maqom: A place or standing-place.
מָקוֹם
This related noun carries the sense of a place where something stands, echoing the elders’ visible presence among the gathered people.
THE PATTERN
A community’s direction is shaped by the voices that speak into its gathering.
Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law:Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men.THE THREAD
Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.The word translated congregation here comes from the same root קהל (qahal), meaning to assemble, as Jeremiah’s assembly. The Psalm places people and elders in a shared public gathering; Jeremiah shows elders rising to speak within that kind of space.
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