What Does Jeremiah 40:1 Mean in the King James?
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after that Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all that were carried away captive of Jerusalem and Judah, which were carried away captive unto Babylon.
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 Hebrew verb behind “let him go” also means “send,” so Jeremiah’s release is a sending that takes place while his chains are still real.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s word meets you in a scene where release and captivity coexist: Jeremiah is sent out of Ramah while still bound among people carried away by force. The verse does not make the chains disappear to make the release real; the word arrives within the violence of the scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that release counts only after every restraint disappears: Jeremiah is let go from Ramah while the chains remain.
THE ROOT
שָׁלַח
šālaḥ
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ח
š-l-ḥ
To send, send forth, or release.
“let him go” in this verse is šālaḥ. The verb joins sending with release: Jeremiah is sent out from Ramah, though the chains remain part of the scene. The same root can describe a messenger sent forth or a dismissal, holding movement and release together.
ALSO GROWS
šālîaḥ: Messenger; one sent.
שְׁלִיחַ
This branch makes the link between being sent and carrying a message visible in the same root.
šillûaḥ: Sending away or dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
It echoes Jeremiah’s release as an act of sending him away from Ramah.
דָּבָר
dābār
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak or utter; the noun can mean a word, matter, or affair.
The Hebrew word can name both speech and a matter or affair. Here, the LORD’s word comes into Jeremiah’s actual circumstances, not into a scene separated from what is happening to him.
ALSO GROWS
dibbēr: He spoke or declared.
דִּבֵּר
This verb shares the root of “word,” linking what is spoken to the utterance itself.
dəvārîm: Words, matters, or affairs.
דְּבָרִים
This plural preserves the word’s range from speech to matters, opening up the weight of what comes to Jeremiah.
אָסוּר
ʾāsûr
GROWS FROM
א־ס־ר
ʾ-s-r
To bind or tie.
The word names an actual restraint: Jeremiah is bound in chains among people carried away captive. Its root also forms words for a prisoner and for imprisonment, keeping the force of captivity present in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāsîr: Prisoner or captive.
אֲסִיר
This branch names the person held by the binding described in the verse.
maʾāsār: Imprisonment or confinement.
מַאֲסָר
It extends the root from the act of binding to the condition that binding creates.
THE PATTERN
Release is voiced as sending forth from constraint, even while the surrounding conditions remain visible.
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,THE THREAD
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.The Hebrew verb behind “Let my people go” is שָׁלַח (šālaḥ), the same root behind Jeremiah’s “let him go.” The root holds release and sending together: Jeremiah is sent out while bound, and Exodus speaks the same verb over a whole people.
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