What Does Jeremiah 39:17 Mean in the King James?
But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the LORD: and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid.
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 pairs two sides of one transfer: the LORD delivers you, and the feared hand does not receive you.
THE MEANING
The danger is named plainly: there are people you fear, and their hand represents power to take hold of you. Yet the LORD’s word says you are delivered in that day and are not handed into their possession. Fear does not make their grip inevitable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that the people you fear will inevitably gain power over you.
THE ROOT
הִצַּלְתִּיךָ
hitsaltikha
GROWS FROM
נצל
natsal
To snatch away, rescue, or bring out of danger.
The verb translated “deliver” carries the sense of being pulled clear of danger. The next clause makes that rescue concrete: you are not transferred into the hand you fear.
ALSO GROWS
hitsil: To deliver or rescue.
הִצִּיל
This causative form shows deliverance as an action that brings someone out of another’s reach.
nitsal: To escape or be rescued.
נִצַּל
This related form presents the same movement from the rescued person’s side: getting clear of danger.
תִנָּתֵן
tinnaten
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
To give, put, set, or place.
The word translated “given” belongs to the same root used for giving and placing. Here the feared men’s hand is the destination of a transfer, and the verse says that transfer does not happen.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, put, or place.
נָתַן
This is the verb family behind being given into someone’s hand: one person or thing is placed with another.
mattanah: A gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This noun also grows from the idea of giving; in the verse, that same act of transfer is denied.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance breaks the feared transfer of power and brings a person out from under the hand that threatens them.
And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.THE THREAD
I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.“Delivered” in this psalm comes from the same Hebrew root, נצל (natsal), as “deliver” in Jeremiah. Jeremiah names the feared people’s hand as the threat; the psalm shows that this rescue-root also reaches into fear itself.
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