What Does Jeremiah 29:9 Mean in the King James?

For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the LORD.

Jeremiah 29:9 · KJV

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 LORD’s name can be claimed, but his sending is what gives a voice its true source.

THE MEANING

A voice can claim to speak in the LORD’s nature without having been sent by him. The verse speaks now wherever a sacred claim and its source come apart.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that invoking the LORD’s name by itself proves that a message comes from him.

THE ROOT

שְׁלַחְתִּים

shelachtim

GROWS FROM

שׁלח

shalach

send, send forth, release

“sent” in this verse is shelachtim. The root holds sending and release together: to send is to let something go forth from its source. The speakers claim the LORD’s name, but the verse says no sending from that source stands behind them.

ALSO GROWS

shilleach: send away, release, let go

שִׁלֵּחַ

This form makes the releasing sense of the root audible: the verse turns on whether these voices have actually been sent forth.

Shiloach: Shiloach, the name of a waterway; its name is rendered “Sent” in John 9:7

שִׁלֹחַ

At the pool of Siloam, a man receives sight; the sent waters connect this root’s movement with restoration.

THE PATTERN

A voice’s claimed authority is distinguished from its source by whether it has truly been sent.

But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.

Deuteronomy 18:20 · KJVA claim to speak in the LORD’s name does not establish that the LORD commanded or sent the speaker.

I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.

John 5:43 · KJVThe verse distinguishes coming in the Father’s name from coming in one’s own name.

Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)

Galatians 1:1 · KJVThe source of an apostle’s sending defines the authority claimed in the message.

THE THREAD

Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.

Exodus 3:10 · KJV

The same root names a sending that brings people out from Egypt, the place of constriction: the LORD’s sending carries release. Jeremiah’s speakers invoke the LORD’s nature, but the verse says no sending from that source stands behind their words.

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