What Does Jeremiah 5:28 Mean in the King James?
They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.
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 places their gleaming abundance beside a double refusal to judge the fatherless and needy, so prosperity cannot be mistaken for justice.
THE MEANING
A polished, prosperous surface coexists with the fatherless person’s case and the needy person’s claim being left unjudged. The verse names this neglect twice, even as those responsible continue to prosper. Their visible success does not tell you whether the vulnerable are receiving justice.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that visible prosperity proves the vulnerable are being treated justly.
THE ROOT
שפט
shaphat
GROWS FROM
שפט
sh-p-t
To judge, govern, or render a decision.
The Hebrew word family connects the act of judging with מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, judgment or justice) and שֹׁפֵט (shofet, judge or ruler). The doubled refusal is therefore more than withholding an opinion: it leaves the work of justice undone where the fatherless and needy need it.
ALSO GROWS
mishpat: Judgment, justice, or rightful order.
מִשְׁפָּט
The same root names both judging and justice, showing that the neglected cases are a failure to enact justice, not simply a missed verdict.
shofet: A judge or ruler.
שֹׁפֵט
The root also names the role entrusted with judging; the verse sets that responsibility beside those who leave vulnerable people’s claims unheard.
THE PATTERN
Justice becomes visible in whether the powerless are heard and their claims acted upon.
Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.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
Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.Jeremiah’s repeated “judge not” shares the root שפט with “judgment” here. Deuteronomy makes the neglected act concrete: hear the small as well as the great, without fear of a powerful face.
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