What Does Jeremiah 44:26 Mean in the King James?
Therefore hear ye the word of the LORD, all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt; Behold, I have sworn by my great name, saith the LORD, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, The Lord GOD liveth.
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 oath forbids more than a title: it silences the public claim that the LORD is alive.
THE MEANING
The verse places an oath over Judah’s public speech in Egypt: they can no longer say, “The Lord GOD liveth.” Here “name” is שֵׁם (shem, name as identity and nature), so the silence reaches the living identity carried by the utterance, not merely a label. God’s great name is both the witness to the oath and the confession it bars.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that God’s name is a human possession that can be invoked at will: the verse depicts that utterance being withheld.
THE ROOT
נִקְרָא
niqra
GROWS FROM
קרא
q-r-ʾ
Call out, summon, proclaim, or read aloud.
The word rendered “named” is נִקְרָא (niqra, be called), from קרא (qara, call or proclaim). The root makes the silence specific: the public call itself disappears, along with the words that declare the LORD’s life.
ALSO GROWS
qara: Call, proclaim, or read aloud.
קָרָא
The same action that names someone can also publicly summon or proclaim; the verse bars that spoken act.
qeriʾah: Calling or reading aloud.
קְרִיאָה
This branch keeps the audible quality of the root in view: what is withheld is speech made public.
נִשְׁבַּעְתִּי
nishbaʿti
GROWS FROM
שבע
sh-b-ʿ
Swear or bind oneself by an oath.
“sworn” in this verse is nishbaʿti. The LORD swears by his great name that this name will no longer be spoken in Judah’s mouths in Egypt. The name is both the oath’s witness and the very thing whose utterance the oath restricts.
ALSO GROWS
shevuʿah: Oath.
שְׁבוּעָה
This noun makes the binding force of the verse’s declaration explicit.
shevaʿ: Seven.
שֶׁבַע
The shared consonants echo in the Beersheba account, where seven ewe lambs mark the oath between Abraham and Abimelech (Genesis 21:28–31).
חַי
ḥay
GROWS FROM
חיה
ḥ-y-h
Live or be alive.
The forbidden words are specifically “The Lord GOD liveth.” The root states that the LORD is alive, making the silenced utterance a compact confession of living presence.
ALSO GROWS
ḥayyim: Life or lives.
חַיִּים
This branch broadens the same root into life itself, the reality the declaration names.
ḥayah: Living creature.
חָיָה
The root also describes a living being, keeping “liveth” concrete as being alive.
THE PATTERN
A name spoken aloud is a public claim about the nature and authority of the one named.
And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.THE THREAD
And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.The Hebrew verb קרא (qara, call or proclaim) appears in both verses: Genesis says people begin to call upon the LORD’s name, while Jeremiah says that call will no longer be heard from Judah in Egypt. One verse opens the mouth to the name; the other names the silence of that same act.
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