What Does Jeremiah 5:19 Mean in the King James?
And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
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 same Hebrew root names the service they choose and the service imposed on them, turning allegiance into its own echo.
THE MEANING
The reader hears the question, “Why is this happening to us?” and sees the answer traced through a repeated pattern: what receives their service shapes the power under which they live. Service to foreign gods becomes service under foreign rule; the same posture remains while its master changes.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that allegiance has no consequence: the power served eventually claims the one who serves.
THE ROOT
וַתַּעַבְדוּ
vattaʿavdu
GROWS FROM
עבד
To work or serve.
“served / serve” in this verse is vattaʿavdu. Hebrew repeats עבד in both halves: service to foreign gods becomes service under foreign people. The posture of labor and allegiance persists while its master changes, making the consequence an echo of the choice.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: Servant or worker.
עֶבֶד
The servant names the person bound to a master, showing the human relationship contained in the verse’s repeated verb.
ʿavodah: Work, labor, or service; also service offered in worship.
עֲבֹדָה
The word spans labor and worship, revealing that devotion is itself a form of service.
THE PATTERN
Service transfers allegiance into lived conditions: the power served becomes the power that governs.
Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?THE THREAD
Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.Deuteronomy uses עבד for the service that becomes captivity; Jeremiah repeats the same root for service to foreign gods and then to foreign people. The shared root makes the consequence sound like an echo: the posture of service continues, but the one receiving it changes.
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