What Does Jeremiah 31:37 Mean in the King James?
Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.
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 makes Israel’s rejection as unthinkable as measuring the heavens and searching out the earth’s foundations.
THE MEANING
Israel’s wrongdoing is named, but it does not make their rejection inevitable: the promise sets that rejection behind a condition no human can fulfill. The verse speaks now as a limit on abandonment, holding the seed of Israel within a commitment that failure cannot simply cancel.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that Israel’s failures have made God’s rejection inevitable.
THE ROOT
וְיַחְקְרוּ
veyachqeru
GROWS FROM
חקר
to search out, investigate, examine deeply
“searched out” in this verse is veyachqeru. The same root appears in the verse’s image of searching the earth’s foundations. That search stands beside measuring the heavens: even the deepest inquiry into creation does not become a condition that can undo the promise.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāqar: to search, investigate
חָקַר
This verb makes the verse’s image of searching the foundations an act of deep inquiry.
ḥēqer: inquiry, investigation
חֵקֶר
This noun names the searching itself, showing that the verse concerns the reach of inquiry as well as the earth beneath it.
זֶרַע
zeraʿ
GROWS FROM
זרע
to sow; seed and what is sown
The word holds seed and descendants together, linking Israel’s people with the image of life continuing from what is sown. The promise speaks of a continuing lineage, not a verdict on each generation’s merit.
ALSO GROWS
zāraʿ: to sow, scatter seed
זָרַע
The verb reveals the generative action held within the verse’s word for Israel’s descendants.
zeraʿ: seed, offspring, descendants
זֶרַע
This noun is the verse’s own word, carrying both the image of seed and the people who continue from it.
THE PATTERN
Creation’s immeasurable scale sets the boundary for the possibility of covenant abandonment.
If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.THE THREAD
It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.The same Hebrew root, חקר, appears in both verses: Jeremiah speaks of searching the earth’s foundations, and Proverbs of searching out a matter. Together they hold deep inquiry alongside what remains beyond its reach.
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