What Does Jeremiah 36:7 Mean in the King James?
It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced against this people.
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 places supplication and turning side by side: the plea for favor is not a plea to remain on the same path.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you now where appeal and a change of direction belong together: you may bring your plea before the LORD and turn from the path that is evil. The anger and fury spoken against the people remain grave; the verse does not make the danger unreal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a plea alone makes it safe to remain on the same destructive path; here, supplication and turning belong together.
THE ROOT
וְיָשֻׁבוּ
veyashuvu
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
turn, return, come back
The verse’s return is a change of direction, not merely a change of feeling or label. This root also forms words for turning back and for bringing something back, so the movement can be both a person’s return and a restoration.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: return, turning
תְּשׁוּבָה
It makes explicit the directional movement contained in “return”: the way changes.
heshiv: bring back, restore
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form shows the same root can describe bringing back what has wandered.
תְּחִנָּתָם
teḥinnātām
GROWS FROM
חָנַן
show favor, be gracious
The word for their supplication grows from the root for showing favor. The plea is therefore an appeal for favor itself, held beside the separate movement of turning from the evil way.
ALSO GROWS
chen: favor
חֵן
The plea seeks the favor named by its own root.
ḥanan: show favor, be gracious
חָנַן
The verb names the favor the supplication asks for.
THE PATTERN
A plea before God is joined to a concrete turn away from the path that draws judgment.
But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;THE THREAD
Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.Jeremiah’s “return” and Ezekiel’s “Repent, and turn yourselves” draw on the Hebrew root שׁוּב (shuv), meaning “turn, return.” Ezekiel uses the same root twice, where English gives two different phrases, making the movement of turning especially clear.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us