What Does Jeremiah 40:9 Mean in the King James?
And Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan sware unto them and to their men, saying, Fear not to serve the Chaldeans: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.
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
This promise locates wellbeing inside submission to the power holding the land, not after that power disappears.
THE MEANING
Your wellbeing is named within a condition you may not have chosen: remaining in the land and serving the power that governs it. The verse promises good inside that arrangement, while leaving the ruler’s hold intact.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that life can become good only after subjection ends: here, good is promised while service to the occupying ruler continues.
THE ROOT
עֲבֹד
ʿavod
GROWS FROM
עבד
Work, serve.
“serve” in this verse is ʿavod. The Hebrew verb grows from the same root as “servant” and “labor.” That word-family makes the promise precise: good is offered within subordinate service, not as freedom from it.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: Servant, slave.
עֶבֶד
This branch makes the subordination inside “serve” audible: the promised good comes while the people remain under another’s rule.
ʿavodah: Work, labor, service.
עֲבֹדָה
Service is not merely allegiance; the root also carries the sense of labor performed under authority.
טוֹב
tov
GROWS FROM
טוב
Good, beneficial, pleasant.
“well” in this verse is tov. The promise is that there can be good for the people within the stated arrangement. The word names benefit, but does not say that the ruler’s power or their service ends.
ALSO GROWS
tovah: Goodness, benefit, welfare.
טוֹבָה
This branch brings out the personal welfare in “well with you,” still held within the command to remain and serve.
tuv: Goodness, good things, abundance.
טוּב
The root can name what is beneficial or plentiful, giving the promise substance without turning it into a promise of release.
גְּדַלְיָהוּ
Gedalyahu
GROWS FROM
גדל
Grow, become great, make great; the name combines this root with Yah and is often rendered “Yah has made great.”
“Gedaliah” in this verse is Gedalyahu. The speaker’s name carries Yah’s greatness into a sentence about serving Babylon. The verse holds those together without explaining away the tension between the name and the empire’s power.
ALSO GROWS
gadal: Grow, become great.
גָּדַל
This is the root at the heart of the name, placing growth or greatness beside the speaker’s promise of good.
gadol: Great, large.
גָּדוֹל
This related form makes the name’s language of greatness concrete, even as Babylon remains the ruling power in the verse.
THE PATTERN
When authority remains in place, scripture names how people continue living within its reach.
And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.THE THREAD
But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the LORD; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.The same root for “serve” appears alongside the promise of remaining in the land. The yoke, continued labor, and dwelling make explicit the structure inside Jeremiah 40:9’s promise of good.
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