What Does Jeremiah 5:14 Mean in the King James?

Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Jeremiah 5:14 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Here the word in the mouth becomes an active force: it consumes the people pictured as wood.

THE MEANING

The verse places denial in the mouth against the words God places in the mouth. God’s word becomes fire, and the people become wood; what is spoken reaches them as a consuming force.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie undone is that denying danger makes it disappear: the denial in the mouth does not neutralize the word’s consuming consequence.

THE ROOT

דְּבָרַי

devarai

GROWS FROM

דבר

To speak or utter; as a noun, a word or matter.

“my words” in this verse is devarai. The root can name both speaking and what is spoken, joining the mouth to the word it carries. Here the words placed in the mouth become an event with force, reaching the people like fire.

ALSO GROWS

davar: Word, matter, or thing

דָּבָר

The word in the verse is joined to the act of speaking and to what that speech sets in motion.

dibber: Spoke or uttered

דִּבֵּר

This verb shares the seed of “word,” keeping speech and the spoken message within one root family.

וַאֲכָלָתַם

va'akhalatam

GROWS FROM

אכל

To eat or consume.

The verb translated “devour” comes from the ordinary root for eating, giving the image a bodily force. The people become what the fire consumes, as wood becomes fuel.

ALSO GROWS

akhal: He ate

אָכַל

This is the basic eating verb beneath the verse’s image of devouring.

ma'akhal: Food; that which is eaten

מַאֲכָל

This noun makes the consuming image concrete: the people are pictured as what the fire feeds on.

THE PATTERN

God’s word acts with force on what it reaches, carrying out what it speaks.

Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

Jeremiah 23:29 · KJVGod’s word is named as fire, the same image that becomes consuming force in Jeremiah 5:14.

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Isaiah 55:11 · KJVThe word going out of the mouth accomplishes its purpose rather than remaining an empty statement.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12 · KJVThe word is living and active, reaching into what it encounters and discerning it.

THE THREAD

Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

Jeremiah 23:29 · KJV

Both verses center on ⁨דָּבָר⁩ (davar, “word, matter”) beside fire. Jeremiah 23:29 names the word as fire; this verse shows its force consuming the people pictured as wood.

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