What Does Jeremiah 49:11 Mean in the King James?
Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me.
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 locates survival after abandonment in an active keeper, while giving widows a place to be secure.
THE MEANING
When a household’s human protection falls away, the verse still names life and trust as present realities. The children are kept alive, and the widows have a place to rest their security in God. Loss is not erased, but it is not the end of the care described here.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that once a family’s protector is gone, its children are simply left to die and its widows have no secure ground.
THE ROOT
אֲחַיֶּה
ʾaḥayyeh
GROWS FROM
חיה
To live, be alive; in this verb form, to cause to live or keep alive.
“preserve them alive” in this verse is ʾaḥayyeh. The Hebrew verb is causative: “I will cause them to live.” The promise describes life actively sustained through abandonment, not merely a feeling of comfort.
ALSO GROWS
ḥay: Alive, living.
חַי
This adjective shares the root’s direct language of being alive, keeping the promise anchored in continued life.
ḥayyim: Life.
חַיִּים
The same root names life itself, joining the act of keeping the children alive with the reality of life they continue to have.
תִּבְטְחוּ
tiḇṭeḥû
GROWS FROM
בטח
To be secure, feel safe, or trust.
This root gives trust the texture of security rather than mere agreement or opinion. The phrase “in me” places the widows’ security in a relationship, giving trust somewhere to rest.
ALSO GROWS
beṭaḥ: Security, safety; securely.
בֶּטַח
This related word makes clear that the trust named here concerns being secure, not simply holding an idea.
mivṭaḥ: Confidence, refuge, or a source of security.
מִבְטָח
This branch gives trust the sense of having a refuge, echoing the widows’ reliance on God.
THE PATTERN
The fatherless and widowed remain within the reach of sustaining care when ordinary family protection has failed.
A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.THE THREAD
O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.Jeremiah’s “I will preserve them alive” and the psalm’s “thou hast kept me alive” grow from חיה (ḥ-y-h), meaning to live or keep alive. Both describe life as actively sustained when death or abandonment is near.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us