Bible Strands
Jeremiah 23:20
The anger of the LORD will not turn back until He has fully accomplished the purposes of His heart. In the days to come you will understand this clearly.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jeremiah addresses the people of Judah immediately after describing the LORD's storm of fury descending upon the wicked. He speaks during a period of prophetic correction and impending national judgment.
The words — The Hebrew יָשׁוּב (ya.shuv) means "it will turn back," paired with עַד (ad) meaning "until." The text states the anger will not reverse before fulfilling His heart's purposes, emphasizing irreversible divine action.
The thread — This identical formulation of unyielding anger appears in Jeremiah 30:24, while the concept of God's word accomplishing its aim parallels Isaiah 55:11. The promise that observers will grasp this "in the days to come" echoes Jacob's eschatological address in Genesis 49:1.
Why it lands — The passage requires readers to accept that current judgments are deliberate acts requiring completion rather than impulsive reactions. Listeners must submit to God's sovereign timeline instead of demanding immediate relief from consequences.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 30:24 The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back until He has fully accomplished the purposes of His heart. In the days to come you will understand this.
- Isaiah 55:11 so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it.
- Genesis 49:1 Then Jacob called for his sons and said, “Gather around so that I can tell you what will happen to you in the days to come:
- Proverbs 21:30 There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel that can prevail against the LORD.
- Isaiah 14:24 The LORD of Hosts has sworn: “Surely, as I have planned, so will it be; as I have purposed, so will it stand.
- Zechariah 1:6 But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? They repented and said, ‘Just as the LORD of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done to us.’”
- Deuteronomy 31:29 For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt and turn from the path I have commanded you. And in the days to come, disaster will befall you because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke Him to anger by the work of your hands.”
- 1 Kings 8:47 and when they come to their senses in the land to which they were taken, and they repent and plead with You in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly,’
- 2 Kings 23:26 Nevertheless, the LORD did not turn away from the fury of His burning anger, which was kindled against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to provoke Him to anger.
- Proverbs 5:11 At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,