What Does Matthew 2:17 Mean?
Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was filled, saying,
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,THE KEY
The Greek for “fulfilled” carries the image of being “filled full”: Jeremiah’s spoken lament reaches its full expression in grief, not in its erasure.
THE MEANING
The grief over children lost to violence is named in Scripture’s voice, so it does not disappear behind a claim of triumph. Here, “fulfilled” describes Jeremiah’s lament taking form; it does not make the violence good or undo the loss.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that fulfillment must mean a happy outcome is undone here: the word reaches fullness in grief, without making the loss acceptable or undone.
THE ROOT
ἐπληρώθη
eplērōthē
GROWS FROM
πληρόω
plēroō
To fill, make full, or bring to completion.
“what was spoken through Jeremiah was filled” in this verse is eplērōthē. “Fulfilled” can sound like a prediction being checked off; the Greek also carries the sense of something being filled to its full measure. Here a spoken lament reaches its fullness in an event of loss, so fulfillment does not imply consolation or approval.
ALSO GROWS
plērēs: Full, complete.
πλήρης
This related word keeps the image of fullness beneath “fulfilled”: the lament is not an empty saying but one brought to its full expression.
plērōma: Fullness, that which fills.
πλήρωμα
This branch makes the shared image explicit: what is spoken comes to fullness in the reality the verse names.
THE PATTERN
Scripture’s spoken word reaches fullness in lived events, including events of grief.
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.Do not think that I came to loosen the instruction or the prophets. I came not to loosen, but to fill.And he began to say to them, Today this writing has been filled in your ears.THE THREAD
Do not think that I came to loosen the instruction or the prophets. I came not to loosen, but to fill.The same verb, πληρόω (plēroō), means “to fill, bring to fullness,” and appears in both verses. Matthew 5:17 speaks of fulfillment as completion; Matthew 2:17 lets that completion name a lament taking shape, so “fulfilled” does not have to mean that pain is over.
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