What Does Jeremiah 44:25 Mean in the King James?
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying; Ye and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hand, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her: ye will surely accomplish your vows, and surely perform your vows.
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 says their hands “fill” what their mouths vow, making devotion a promise completed in action.
THE MEANING
Your spoken commitments stand beside your enacted ones, revealing the object each serves. The verse names a stark case: incense and drink offerings to the queen of heaven. Sincerity and follow-through are real here, yet they do not change whom the vow serves.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that keeping a commitment by itself proves its object is worthy dissolves here: the vow is enacted, yet its stated object is the queen of heaven.
THE ROOT
מִלֵּאתֶם
milletem
GROWS FROM
מלא
to fill, make full
The Hebrew verb retains the image of filling beneath the English “fulfilled.” The hands give the spoken vow its fullness: devotion takes shape in what is done.
ALSO GROWS
male: to be full
מָלֵא
This branch shows the state of fullness behind the action of completing the vow.
mille: to fill, complete
מִלֵּא
This is the same action expressed in the verse: the hands fill out what the mouth has declared.
נְדָרֵינוּ
nedarenu
GROWS FROM
נדר
to vow, make a solemn pledge
“vows / vowed” in this verse is nedarenu. The noun and verb share one root: the vow they name is the act they vow. Its repetition keeps their commitment concrete, while the verse makes its direction unmistakable.
ALSO GROWS
neder: vow
נֶדֶר
This is the pledge the speakers say they will perform.
nadar: to vow
נָדַר
This verb names the act of making the pledge, repeated in “vows that we have vowed.”
THE PATTERN
A spoken commitment takes concrete shape when hands enact it.
When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.THE THREAD
When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.Ecclesiastes uses the same Hebrew root נדר (nadar, to vow) for both “vowest” and “vow,” holding the pledge and the act of pledging together. Beside Jeremiah, it sharpens the mouth-to-hand movement: the vow becomes concrete, while the object toward which it is made remains decisive.
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