What Does Jeremiah 37:3 Mean in the King James?
And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now unto the LORD our God for us.
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 king’s name says “YHWH is alignment,” and his request makes visible how a plea reaches “our God” through another person’s prayer.
THE MEANING
You can call the LORD “our God” and still ask another person to carry your plea before him. The verse holds belonging and dependence together: a shared relationship does not erase the place of intercession.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that asking another person to pray means your own relationship with God is absent; the request itself calls the LORD “our God.”
THE ROOT
הִתְפַּלֵּל
hitpallel
GROWS FROM
פלל
palal
To intervene or interpose; in this form, to pray.
English “pray” can sound like simply speaking words, but this Hebrew verb belongs to a word family that also carries the sense of intervening. Jeremiah is asked to stand in the plea on behalf of others, making prayer an act carried for someone else.
ALSO GROWS
tefillah: Prayer.
תְּפִלָּה
This noun from the same root names the act requested of Jeremiah.
pelilim: Judges or arbiters.
פְּלִילִים
This related form brings the root’s adjudicating shade alongside the request for someone to intervene.
צִדְקִיָּהוּ
Tsidqiyyahu
GROWS FROM
צדק
tsadaq
Alignment, rightness, justice.
Zedekiah’s name carries the claim “YHWH is alignment.” The appeal to “the LORD our God” comes from a king whose own name already places alignment in the nature of YHWH.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Rightness, justice, alignment.
צֶדֶק
This noun gives the central root sense carried in Zedekiah’s name.
tsedaqah: Righteousness, just action, alignment.
צְדָקָה
This related form shows the root’s movement from rightness into enacted justice.
וַיִּשְׁלַח
vayyishlach
GROWS FROM
שלח
shalach
To send forth, release, or let go.
“Sent” in this verse is vayyishlach. The request begins with a sending: the king dispatches envoys to Jeremiah, and the plea continues through the prophet toward God. Since shalach also means release, the verse carries a quiet resonance of sending something forth and letting it go.
ALSO GROWS
mishloach: A sending or dispatch.
מִשְׁלוֹחַ
This noun echoes the king’s act of sending people with a request.
leshalleach: To send away or release.
לְשַׁלֵּחַ
This related form shows the root’s range from dispatching someone to releasing them.
THE PATTERN
Intercessory prayer is a plea carried by one person on behalf of another.
Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Intreat the LORD, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the LORD.Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way:Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.THE THREAD
And said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the LORD thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us:)The same Hebrew verb for “pray” appears in both pleas to Jeremiah. Here it is “the LORD our God”; there it is “the LORD thy God,” making the relationship carried through intercession visible in the wording.
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