What Does Jeremiah 8:10 Mean in the King James?
Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
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
Hebrew repeats the root for cutting off gain, making covetousness sound like the act that strips households and fields from others.
THE MEANING
You are shown the cost of greed in real dispossession: wives are given to others and fields pass to new possessors. The verse exposes gain-seeking at every rank and falsehood in the offices that speak for truth, a pattern still present wherever profit and deception govern together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Religious office does not guarantee honesty: the prophet and the priest can both deal falsely when gain has spread through every rank.
THE ROOT
כֻּלּוֹ בֹּצֵעַ בָּצַע
kullō bōṣēaʿ baṣaʿ
GROWS FROM
בצע
b-ṣ-ʿ
To cut off or break off; by extension, to gain, often by taking unjustly.
“is given to covetousness” in this verse is kullō bōṣēaʿ baṣaʿ. The Hebrew repeats this root in “each one is cutting gain,” giving covetousness the force of an active practice. That sound echoes the verse’s concrete losses: households and fields are stripped away as gain becomes the pursuit at every level.
ALSO GROWS
bōṣēaʿ: One who gains by taking; a gain-seeker.
בֹּצֵעַ
This participle names what each person is doing, making greed a shared pattern of action rather than only an inward desire.
beṣaʿ: Gain or profit, often unjust gain.
בֶּצַע
This noun is translated “covetousness” in Exodus 18:21, where leaders are to hate such gain.
עֹשֶׂה שָׁקֶר
ʿōśeh šeqer
GROWS FROM
שקר
sh-q-r
To lie, deceive, or act falsely.
“dealeth falsely” in this verse is ʿōśeh šeqer. The Hebrew says the prophet and priest “do falsehood,” presenting deception as their practice, not merely an occasional false statement. Beside the repeated root for gain, falsehood appears as part of the same public pattern.
ALSO GROWS
šeqer: Falsehood, a lie, or deception.
שֶׁקֶר
The noun names what their actions produce: falsehood becomes the visible product of their dealings.
shāqar: To lie or deceive; to deal falsely.
שָׁקַר
This verb carries the active force of the accusation: deception is something the leaders do.
THE PATTERN
When gain governs those entrusted with judgment and sacred speech, exploitation and falsehood become normal work.
The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.THE THREAD
Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:“Covetousness” here comes from the same root as Jeremiah’s repeated word for gain: בצע (b-ṣ-ʿ), gain acquired by taking. Exodus names hatred of that gain as a quality of trustworthy leaders, revealing the standard Jeremiah’s society has abandoned.
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