What Does Jeremiah 6:20 Mean in the King James?
To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto 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 calls burnt offerings “ascents,” yet rising toward God is not the same as being received.
THE MEANING
The verse addresses you with an exposed gap: what is precious and deliberately brought can still fail to be received. The burnt offerings rise, yet they are not accepted; the sacrifices are present, yet they are not pleasing. Its question, “To what purpose?”, asks what a gift is for when it is not welcomed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A costly, beautiful, or religious offering is not automatically pleasing to God.
THE ROOT
עֹלוֹתֵיכֶם
ʿoloteikhem
GROWS FROM
עלה
עָלָה (ʿālāh): to go up, rise, ascend.
Your עֹלוֹתֵיכֶם (ʿoloteikhem, burnt offerings) are named with the word for rising or ascending. English keeps the ritual but hides that upward motion: a gift may ascend while still failing to be received.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: To go up; to rise; to ascend.
עָלָה
This verb is the seed of the offering’s name: the offering is an ascent.
maʿaleh: An ascent; an upward step.
מַעֲלֶה
This related noun makes the movement in the offering’s name visible: it goes upward, but ascent alone does not make it welcome.
THE PATTERN
An outward offering is not automatically welcome merely because it is costly or sacred.
And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.THE THREAD
But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.Leviticus names the burnt sacrifice עֹלָה (ʿōlāh, an ascending offering) and calls its aroma sweet to the LORD. Jeremiah uses that same offering word while saying these offerings are not accepted, revealing that ascent describes what rises, not whether it is welcomed.
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