What Does Jeremiah 32:18 Mean in the King James?
Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name,
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 Hebrew word for “recompensest” shares its root with words for wholeness, linking repayment with the idea of something being made complete while faithful love reaches thousands.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now: faithful love reaches thousands, while the fathers’ iniquity is recompensed into the bosom of their children after them. The image keeps the consequence close and embodied, and names the God who holds both as great, mighty, and LORD of hosts.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that divine faithful love means every consequence disappears: the verse names love reaching thousands and recompense reaching children in one sentence.
THE ROOT
מְשַׁלֵּם
meshallēm
GROWS FROM
שלם
shalem (שָׁלֵם; sh-l-m): to be whole or complete; in the form used here, to pay or recompense.
“recompensest” in this verse is meshallēm. מְשַׁלֵּם (meshallēm, recompensing) comes from the same root as words for being whole. That shared seed places repayment in the Hebrew family of bringing something to completion, while the verse holds it beside faithful love reaching thousands.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This form makes the root’s sense of wholeness visible alongside the verse’s word for recompense.
shalom: wholeness, well-being
שָׁלוֹם
The same root also names wholeness, revealing a connection English does not show in “recompensest.”
חֶסֶד
ḥesed
GROWS FROM
חסד
ḥ-s-d: faithful, loyal love expressed through committed action.
The phrase rendered “shewest lovingkindness” is ḥesed (חֶסֶד, faithful love): durable allegiance made active. The verse gives that love an immense reach, thousands, without hiding the painful reach of the fathers’ iniquity into their children’s lives.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāsad: to act loyally, show kindness
חָסַד
The verbal form makes clear that ḥesed is enacted fidelity, not only a feeling.
ḥāsîḏ: a faithful or loyal one
חָסִיד
The same root describes a person marked by faithful love, showing that ḥesed can shape a life as well as name a quality.
הַגִּבּוֹר
haggibbôr
GROWS FROM
גבר
g-b-r: to prevail, grow strong, or prove mighty.
“Mighty” is gibbôr (גִּבּוֹר), from a root of prevailing strength. The verse names active might alongside faithful love and recompense, holding all three within the nature of the LORD of hosts.
ALSO GROWS
gābar: to prevail, grow strong
גָּבַר
The verb shows the action behind the title “Mighty.”
gevūrāh: might, strength
גְּבוּרָה
This noun shares the root and names the strength concentrated in the title used here.
THE PATTERN
The effects of one generation’s acts can reach beyond its own lifetime, while faithful love reaches widely too.
Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.THE THREAD
Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.The same Hebrew word חֶסֶד (ḥesed, faithful love) anchors both verses. Exodus places it beside the visiting of the fathers’ iniquity upon children and grandchildren, revealing the paired reach of love and consequence in Jeremiah’s words too.
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