What Does Jeremiah 38:13 Mean in the King James?
So they drew up Jeremiah with cords, and took him up out of the dungeon: and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.
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
Jeremiah is lifted out of the dungeon, yet he remains in the prison courtyard: a real change in confinement can come before freedom.
THE MEANING
You can be pulled out of one depth and still find yourself within a larger enclosure. The verse holds both truths together: the lift is real, and the confinement remains. A changed place is not yet complete release.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Still being constrained does not mean nothing has changed: Jeremiah is out of the dungeon even while he remains in prison.
THE ROOT
וַיִּמְשְׁכוּ
wayyimshĕḵû
GROWS FROM
משך
To draw, pull, or stretch out.
“drew” in this verse is wayyimshĕḵû. The root מָשַׁךְ (māšakh, to draw or pull) can describe pulling someone from a pit and drawing something out over time. Jeremiah is drawn upward, but the sentence places him still inside the prison grounds: movement has begun, while release remains incomplete.
ALSO GROWS
mishkhu: Draw out and take.
מִשְׁכוּ
The same root describes drawing something toward oneself; here, cords make Jeremiah’s upward movement physical and deliberate.
meshōkh: Extend or continue.
מְשֹׁךְ
The root can also carry the sense of drawing something onward, echoing how Jeremiah’s rescue changes his position without ending his confinement.
THE PATTERN
Release can unfold in stages: one enclosure opens while a larger restraint remains.
Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands.THE THREAD
Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.The same Hebrew root מָשַׁךְ (māšakh, to draw or pull) names the act that gets Jeremiah out of his pit and Joseph out of his. Joseph’s extraction is followed by his sale into Egypt, so the shared verb shows that being drawn out of one pit does not, by itself, determine where the next movement leads.
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