What Does Jeremiah 28:1 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all 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 voice can carry a name that speaks of God’s favor and stand in the LORD’s house, yet its words still have to answer to truth.
THE MEANING
A claim can be spoken in sacred space before priests and a crowd without those surroundings proving it comes from God. Hananiah’s name means “YHWH has shown favor,” but the chapter’s words remain subject to a test of truth. The reader now sees that sacred language and setting can frame a claim without confirming it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A prophet speaking in God’s house before religious leaders must be speaking for God.
THE ROOT
אָמַר
ʾāmar
GROWS FROM
א־מ־ר
ʾ-m-r
To say or utter.
The English “spake” reports an act of speech, while this root also forms words for an utterance and a formal saying. The root identifies the words as spoken; it does not certify their source.
ALSO GROWS
ʾimrāh: Utterance or saying.
אִמְרָה
This branch links a spoken statement to the broader Hebrew family of words for utterance.
maʾamar: A saying, statement, or decree.
מַאֲמָר
This branch shows that speech can take the form of an authoritative pronouncement, though the form alone does not prove its authority.
חֲנַנְיָה
Ḥănanyāh
GROWS FROM
ח־נ־ן
ḥ-n-n
To show favor or be gracious.
Hananiah’s name compresses “YHWH has shown favor”; its root also appears in Hebrew words for favor and graciousness. That meaning sharpens the tension in the scene, but a name that invokes divine favor does not establish that its bearer’s claim speaks for God.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: Favor.
חֵן
The shared root makes favor part of the name’s meaning.
ḥannûn: Gracious or showing favor.
חַנּוּן
This related form echoes the graciousness carried in Hananiah’s name.
THE PATTERN
A speaker’s sacred setting and public audience do not establish that the speaker’s claim comes from God; the words remain testable.
The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him.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.Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.THE THREAD
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.The Hebrew behind “words” here is אִמְרוֹת (ʾimrōt), “words” or “utterances,” from the same אָמַר (ʾāmar), “say,” root as “spake.” Psalm’s image of speech refined like silver opens a test of substance: a public setting cannot refine a claim; its words must withstand the truth.
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