Bible Strands
Jeremiah 42:3
Pray that the LORD your God will tell us the way we should walk and the thing we should do.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The remnant leaders address Jeremiah the prophet, requesting that he petition Yahweh for guidance on their immediate next steps. This occurs during a period of administrative collapse when the remaining Judahites face an uncertain future.
The words — הַדֶּרֶךְ (ha.derekh) translates literally as “the way,” and נֵלֵךְ (nelekh) means “we will go.” These terms frame the petition as a direct request for revealed direction rather than human strategy.
The thread — The theme of seeking divine direction for conduct appears in Psalms 86:11, Proverbs 3:6, and Ezra 8:21. Each passage links human movement with reliance on God’s instruction.
Why it lands — The verse demands a reader to submit personal decision-making to external revelation. It requires acknowledging that correct action depends on divine declaration rather than autonomous calculation.
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
That the Lord thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do.
Cross-references
- Psalms 86:11 Teach me Your way, O LORD, that I may walk in Your truth. Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your name.
- Proverbs 3:6 in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
- Ezra 8:21 And there by the Ahava Canal I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask Him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions.
- Psalms 25:4 Show me Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths.
- Jeremiah 6:16 This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: ‘Where is the good way?’ Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it!’
- Micah 4:2 And many nations will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
- Deuteronomy 5:26 For who of all flesh has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the fire, as we have, and survived?
- Deuteronomy 5:29 If only they had such a heart to fear Me and keep all My commandments always, so that it might be well with them and with their children forever.
- 1 Kings 8:36 then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, so that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk. May You send rain on the land that You gave Your people as an inheritance.
- Psalms 143:8 Let me hear Your loving devotion in the morning, for I have put my trust in You. Teach me the way I should walk, for to You I lift up my soul.