What Does Jeremiah 29:15 Mean in the King James?
Because ye have said, The LORD hath raised us up prophets in Babylon;
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 records a claim of divine authority, while “ye have said” keeps that claim from becoming proof.
THE MEANING
The sentence places the reader at the moment someone says, “The LORD hath raised us up prophets in Babylon.” The verb pictures these voices as established to stand there, but the opening words mark their divine origin as something being claimed. The verse makes the space between a voice and its claimed source visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A voice’s declaration that God sent it is sufficient proof that God did.
THE ROOT
הֵקִים
hēqîm
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
Rise, stand; in this verb form, cause to stand or establish.
“raised up” in this verse is hēqîm. The claim is that the LORD has made these prophets stand. But “ye have said” marks that appointment as an assertion: the verb describes what is claimed, not proof of its source.
ALSO GROWS
qām: Stood, arose
קָם
The same root describes someone standing; הֵקִים (hēqîm, “raised up”) is causative, making someone stand.
māqôm: Place
מָקוֹם
This word for place grows from the same root of standing, joining establishment with the place where someone stands.
נְבִיאִים
nevi’im
GROWS FROM
נבא
n-b-ʾ
Proclaim or speak prophetically.
The word for prophets shares its seed with the act of prophesying and the prophecy itself, drawing speaker and speech into one family. Yet the sentence keeps the appointment claim separate: being called a prophet does not establish who sent the voice.
ALSO GROWS
nāvîʾ: Prophet
נָבִיא
The singular names the speaker whose authority is being claimed.
nevu’ah: Prophecy
נְבוּאָה
The related word names the prophetic message, connecting the speaker to what is spoken.
בָּבֶל
Bāvel
GROWS FROM
בלל
Mix or confuse; Genesis 11:9 links the name Babel with this word.
“Babylon” in this verse is Bāvel. The place-name carries a scriptural echo of mixture and confusion: Genesis links בָּבֶל (Bāvel, “Babel”) with בָּלַל (bālal, “mix or confuse”). That echo colors the setting, but it does not decide whether these prophets speak truly; “ye have said” remains the verse’s direct marker for what is claimed.
ALSO GROWS
bālal: To mix or confuse
בָּלַל
Genesis 11:9 makes this sound-link explicit in its account of Babel’s name.
belulah: Mingled, mixed
בְּלוּלָה
This related form uses the same root for things mixed together, showing the root’s range beyond confusion.
THE PATTERN
A claim to speak for God is weighed by its source and what it brings forth, not by the claim itself.
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.Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.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
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.Jeremiah 23:16 uses the same word נְבִיאִים (nevi’im, “prophets”) and distinguishes their own visions from words that come from the LORD. It opens Jeremiah 29:15 further: “ye have said” leaves the source of the claimed appointment as the question.
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