What Does Jeremiah 38:20 Mean in the King James?
But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the LORD, which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live.
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 binds the life of the whole self to a voice that is truly heard and answered.
THE MEANING
The threat around you does not have to define the whole of your life. The LORD’s voice reaches you now as something to hear and answer, and the verse joins that responsive hearing to well-being and the life of your whole self. What is at stake is the life of the person, not a separate part called a soul.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the fear that the people you dread have the final say over your life; the feared handover stands beside a voice that opens a way to well-being and life.
THE ROOT
שְׁמֹעַ
shamoa
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, respond.
The word behind “obey” is שְׁמֹעַ (shamoa, hear and respond): the verse presents obedience as hearing that answers, not as a separate stage after hearing. Its branches preserve the link between what reaches the ear and the response that follows.
ALSO GROWS
shama: Hear, listen, respond.
שָׁמַע
This is the basic verb behind the appeal to obey; hearing here carries the possibility of response within it.
shemuah: Report, news that is heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The same root can name what is heard and carried forward; here the LORD’s voice bears a word that calls for an answer.
יִתְּנוּ
yittenu
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, place.
“deliver” in this verse is yittenu. יִתְּנוּ (yittenu, they will give) comes from נתן (natan, give, set, place), so the feared “delivery” is a concrete handover. The root’s range keeps the reassurance grounded: the question is whether you are placed into the power you fear.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift, something given.
מַתָּנָה
This branch makes the root’s basic sense of giving visible; in the verse, the feared giving over would place a person in another’s hands.
nathun: Given, set in place.
נָתוּן
This form shows the state that follows giving: where someone is placed matters to the promise of safety.
נַפְשְׁךָ
nafshekha
GROWS FROM
נפש
The living self; life as a living being.
“soul” in this verse is nafshekha. נַפְשְׁךָ (nafshekha, your living self) names the life of the whole person, not a separate fragment surviving apart from you. A related verb, וַיִּנָּפַשׁ (wayyinnaphash, was refreshed), lets the root carry a neighboring sense of restoration as well as living self.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: Living soul, living self.
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the noun in “thy soul shall live”: the promise concerns the life of the whole person.
wayyinnaphash: Was refreshed.
וַיִּנָּפַשׁ
This related verb gives the root a shade of restoration, widening “shall live” beyond bare continuation.
THE PATTERN
Life opens where a voice is heard as a response-bearing word.
That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.Isaiah 55:3 repeats the same roots: שמע (shama, hear and respond) and נפש (nefesh, living self). The pairing makes the promise plain: the living self is joined to life through hearing that answers.
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