What Does Jeremiah 7:17 Mean in the King James?
Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
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 question makes the streets of a city named for wholeness a place where its people’s conduct can no longer pass unseen.
THE MEANING
The verse turns attention to what is happening in shared, public life. Its question holds the reader in the space between seeing repeated actions and recognizing what they reveal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that familiar public behavior becomes invisible simply because it is everywhere.
THE ROOT
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
Wholeness, completeness
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. Yerushalayim carries the shalom family of wholeness. That makes the setting more than geography: the streets named within wholeness hold conduct the question refuses to blur.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness
שָׁלוֹם
The name’s wholeness gives the public setting a deeper charge.
shalem: Whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This branch echoes the wholeness carried by the city’s name.
רֹאֶה
ro’eh
GROWS FROM
ראה
r-ʾ-h
To see, look, perceive
“Seest” in this verse is ro’eh. The verb can name perception as well as eyesight, so the question presses beyond noticing actions toward recognizing what they reveal. Its family holds the act of seeing together with both the seer and the vision.
ALSO GROWS
mar’eh: Appearance, vision
מַרְאֶה
What is seen can be an appearance to perceive, not just an image passing before the eyes.
ro’eh: Seer, one who sees
רֹאֶה
The same word family names the person who perceives, linking seeing to the one who must recognize what is before them.
THE PATTERN
Seeing in scripture brings what is hidden or familiar into recognition.
And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.THE THREAD
Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.Jeremiah 1:11 uses the same ראה (ra’ah) root for seeing. There, the question draws a vision into words; here, seeing is turned toward what is taking place in the streets.
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