What Does Jeremiah 31:5 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things.
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
Restoration is not merely getting to plant again; it is getting to stay and freely enjoy what you plant.
THE MEANING
You are shown restoration as a life that reaches beyond beginning again: you plant, and you also eat what grows. The fruit is not kept outside ordinary life; it becomes common provision, available to enjoy.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie undone is that a new beginning still leaves the fruit of your labor out of reach.
THE ROOT
תִּטְּעִי
titte‘i
GROWS FROM
נ־ט־ע
n-ṭ-ʿ
To plant, to set into the soil.
“plant” in this verse is titte‘i. The verse repeats this root in both the act of planting and the people who do it. The picture is not only of land becoming fruitful again, but of its planters remaining there to see and enjoy that fruit.
ALSO GROWS
neti‘ah: Planting; a planted growth.
נְטִיעָה
It carries the act of setting growth into the ground that begins the verse’s promise.
matta‘: A planting; a plantation.
מַטָּע
It names the planted place as something established to grow, not a passing effort.
וְחִלֵּלוּ
veḥillēlū
GROWS FROM
ח־ל־ל
ḥ-l-l
To make common or profane; to treat as open to ordinary use.
The Hebrew verb carries the sense of making something common, while the KJV renders the result as eating the fruit as common things. The wording brings the harvest into ordinary life: it can be used and enjoyed, rather than kept out of reach.
ALSO GROWS
ḥol: Common; non-sacred.
חֹל
It illuminates the verse’s image of fruit entering ordinary use.
ḥillul: Profanation; treating something as common.
חִלּוּל
It shares the verb’s root and clarifies the shift from set-apart status to common use.
שֹׁמְרוֹן
Shomron
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ר
sh-m-r
To watch, keep, or guard; the place-name Shomron is traditionally associated with this root.
The name Samaria carries a watchful or guarded resonance in Hebrew. The verse places its restored planting on these heights, where vines can grow and their fruit can be enjoyed.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: A watcher or keeper.
שֹׁמֵר
It makes the watchful resonance in Shomron audible.
mishmeret: A watch, charge, or duty.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
It shares the root’s sense of keeping and guarding, adding a note of care to the place-name.
THE PATTERN
Restoration includes remaining present to enjoy the fruit of what has been planted.
And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?THE THREAD
Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;Jeremiah 29:5 uses the same planting root and pairs planting directly with eating the fruit. That shared wording opens this verse’s promise as work that reaches its own harvest and enjoyment.
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