What Does Jeremiah 32:22 Mean in the King James?

And hast given them this land, which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;

Jeremiah 32:22 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The gift is not pictured as bare territory, but as a place whose nourishment keeps flowing.

THE MEANING

This verse lets the reader see a promise take the shape of a gift: the land is given, and it is the land sworn for giving. Its defining image is not a boundary but nourishment in motion, milk and honey flowing. The promise becomes visible as provision.

THE ROOT

וַתִּתֵּן

vattitten

GROWS FROM

נתן

Give, set, place.

The same root appears in the claim that the land has been given and in the oath that it would be given, folding promise and fulfillment into one act. Its sense of setting or placing lets the gift be heard as provision placed into the recipients’ hands.

ALSO GROWS

natan: To give, set, or place.

נָתַן

This verb appears twice in the verse, joining the given land to the promise to give it.

mattanah: Gift.

מַתָּנָה

This related noun names what giving leaves in the recipient’s hands: a gift.

זָבַת

zavat

GROWS FROM

זוב

Flow, gush, issue forth.

“flowing” in this verse is zavat. The land is described by what it pours out, not only by its boundaries: nourishment is actively issuing from it. This root can also name bodily discharge, making the image of flow concrete and tactile.

ALSO GROWS

zov: A flow or discharge.

זוֹב

This noun from the same root makes the verse’s image of milk and honey an active outpouring.

zav: Flowing; one who has a discharge.

זָב

The related form describes something that flows, so the land is pictured by its continuing issue of nourishment.

נִשְׁבַּעְתָּ

nishba'ta

GROWS FROM

שבע

Swear or bind by an oath; the same consonants form the word for seven.

“swear” in this verse is nishba'ta. The oath verb shares its root with the word for seven, giving the pledge a language of solemn binding. Here the oath does not remain speech: the verse names the land as given.

ALSO GROWS

shevuah: An oath.

שְׁבוּעָה

This noun from the same root names the binding pledge behind the gift.

sheva: Seven.

שֶׁבַע

The shared root ties the oath to the word for seven, echoing the pledge’s solemn, binding force.

THE PATTERN

A promised gift becomes visible as provision that sustains life.

And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Exodus 3:8 · KJVThe gift takes the same concrete shape: a good, spacious land whose nourishment flows.

For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;

Deuteronomy 8:7 · KJVThe land’s provision appears as water springing from it, making abundance a visible outflow.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Matthew 5:5 · KJVThe earth is described as an inheritance to receive, echoing the verse’s gift of land.

THE THREAD

And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.

Genesis 12:7 · KJV

The same verb ⁨נתן⁩ (natan, give or place) joins these verses: Genesis speaks of giving the land, and Jeremiah names it as given. The root makes the movement from promise to provision audible.

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