What Does Jeremiah 37:20 Mean in the King James?
Therefore hear now, I pray thee, O my lord the king: let my supplication, I pray thee, be accepted before thee; that thou cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.
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 pictures Jeremiah’s plea falling before the king, where power is asked to meet the danger the plea names.
THE MEANING
A threat to your life can be named plainly before someone with power over what happens next. The plea does not hide its stakes: returning to that house means death there. It holds a request for favor in the moment before the feared outcome becomes the next step.
THE ROOT
תִּפֹּל
tipol
GROWS FROM
נפל
naphal
to fall
The Hebrew verb comes from נפל (naphal), meaning “to fall”: the petition is pictured as falling before the king. “Accepted” names the hoped-for welcome, while the Hebrew also lets you see the plea come into the king’s presence.
ALSO GROWS
nafal: to fall
נָפַל
This is the root verb behind the image of Jeremiah’s plea falling before the king.
mapalah: a downfall or collapse
מַפָּלָה
This branch keeps the root’s sense of falling and sharpens the stakes of a plea made under threat.
תְּחִנָּתִי
tachinati
GROWS FROM
חנן
chanan
to show favor or be gracious
Jeremiah’s word for supplication carries the seed of favor: he asks that his plea be met with gracious regard. The word holds both the request and the kind of response being sought.
ALSO GROWS
chen: favor
חֵן
This branch names the favorable regard Jeremiah asks the king to show his plea.
chanun: gracious or favor-giving
חַנּוּן
This branch describes the quality of the response implicit in Jeremiah’s appeal.
יְהוֹנָתָן
Yehonatan
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
to give, set, or place
“Jonathan” in this verse is Yehonatan. Yehonatan means “YHWH has given,” with נתן (natan), meaning “to give,” as its verbal root. The name’s meaning sits beside the danger Jeremiah associates with this house without erasing what he says about it.
ALSO GROWS
natan: to give, set, or place
נָתַן
This verb supplies the “has given” meaning within the name Yehonatan.
mattanah: a gift
מַתָּנָה
This noun is another branch of נתן, the giving root within Jonathan’s name.
THE PATTERN
A desperate plea brings the threatened outcome before whoever has the power to answer.
And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews.This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;THE THREAD
Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.Jeremiah’s “supplication” and the Psalm’s “favour” grow from חנן (chanan), meaning “to show favor.” The shared root connects the plea laid before the king with favor shown to Zion.
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