What Does Jeremiah 38:25 Mean in the King James?

But if the princes hear that I have talked with thee, and they come unto thee, and say unto thee, Declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the king, hide it not from us, and we will not put thee to death; also what the king said unto thee:

Jeremiah 38:25 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The promise of safety makes the threat audible: access to a private word is being bargained against a life.

THE MEANING

A demand to reveal what was said arrives with a promise of safety: tell the princes everything exchanged with the king, and they say they will spare the one who tells them. The guarantee makes the danger visible; safety itself becomes the price attached to a private word.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The promise “we will not put thee to death” is not proof that the demand is harmless; it shows that the request carries a threat of death within it.

THE ROOT

הַגִּידָה

haggidah

GROWS FROM

נגד

nagad

To stand out in front, bring forward, or make known.

The request to “declare” carries the sense of bringing something forward where it can be seen. English makes it sound like a request merely to speak; the Hebrew root makes the hidden word stand before the princes.

ALSO GROWS

neged: In front of; opposite.

נֶגֶד

This branch makes the spatial sense of “bring forward” visible in the demand to disclose the king’s words.

maggid: A teller; one who makes something known.

מַגִּיד

The princes ask Jeremiah to become the one who brings the king’s words into their hearing.

תְּכַחֵד

tekhaḥēd

GROWS FROM

כחד

kāḥad

To conceal or keep back; in related forms, to make disappear or cut off.

This root family reaches from concealment to making something disappear. “Hide it not” places the word’s presence at stake: withholding it can make it function as though it were absent from the hearers.

ALSO GROWS

kāḥad: Conceal; keep back.

כָּחַד

This is the act the princes forbid: keeping the king’s words out of their reach.

hikhḥid: Make disappear; cut off.

הִכְחִיד

This related form sharpens the stakes of concealment: what is kept back can vanish from the account others receive.

דִּבַּרְתִּי

dibbartî

GROWS FROM

דבר

dāḇar

To speak; the related noun means word or utterance.

“Talked; said” in this verse is dibbartî. The Hebrew uses the same ⁨דבר⁩ family for what Jeremiah “talked” and what the king “said.” English separates the speech into different verbs, while the Hebrew keeps the exchange rooted in one word-family: the dispute is over who gets to hear the word.

ALSO GROWS

dāḇār: Word; utterance.

דָּבָר

This is the word-family at the center of the princes’ demand: they want the king’s words brought to them.

dibbēr: Speak; say.

דִּבֵּר

The verb names both sides of the exchange: Jeremiah speaks with the king, and the king speaks to him.

THE PATTERN

Power tries to govern a message by tying speech or silence to a person’s safety and belonging.

For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

Jeremiah 20:10 · KJVThe speaker hears others trade reports and anticipate revenge, making each spoken word a possible instrument of harm.

These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.

John 9:22 · KJVConfessing what they believe carries the penalty of expulsion, so the parents’ speech is constrained by threatened exclusion.

And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

Acts 4:18 · KJVAuthorities command the speakers to silence their message, turning speech into a contest over who controls what may be said.

THE THREAD

Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah, and asked him: and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him; for the matter was not perceived.

Jeremiah 38:27 · KJV

The next verse uses the same root ⁨נגד⁩ (nagad, bring forward or tell) in ⁨וַיַּגֵּד⁩ (wayyagged, “he told”): the command to declare becomes an act of bringing words before the princes. Yet they do not perceive the matter, showing that a word being told does not guarantee it is understood.

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