What Does Jeremiah 5:7 Mean in the King James?
How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
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 both their oath to no-gods and God’s act of filling them, placing their divided allegiance inside the very fullness they received.
THE MEANING
You can be filled by what sustains you while your allegiance turns elsewhere; fullness does not make loyalty automatic. The verse names the rupture plainly: those nourished by God swear by what is no god, then commit adultery and gather in prostitutes’ houses. Its question about pardon asks what release means when care has been met by betrayal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Receiving care does not guarantee that your allegiance is whole; fullness can coexist with betrayal.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשָּׁבְעוּ
vayyishaveʿu
GROWS FROM
שׁבע
sh-b-ʿ
To swear an oath; to be full or satisfied. The verse uses two forms of this same root.
“sworn / fed them to the full” in this verse is vayyishaveʿu. English separates “sworn” from “fed them to the full,” while Hebrew places both under שׁבע (sh-b-ʿ). The verse does not make the acts identical; it makes their collision audible: fullness received from God stands beside allegiance given to what is no god.
ALSO GROWS
sāvēaʿ: Full, sated, satisfied.
שָׂבֵעַ
This is the root’s fullness sense, echoing God’s act of satisfying them in the verse.
nishbaʿ: Swear, take an oath.
נִשְׁבַּע
This is the oath sense heard in their swearing by what is no god.
THE PATTERN
Received fullness can coexist with, and even precede, allegiance turned toward a substitute.
But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.THE THREAD
According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.Hosea uses שׁבע (sh-b-ʿ, “be full or satisfied”) for being filled, the same root heard in Jeremiah’s “sworn” and “fed them to the full.” It traces the same fracture: fullness received, then allegiance turned away.
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