Jeremiah 5:14

Therefore this is what the LORD God of Hosts says: “Because you have spoken this word, I will make My words a fire in your mouth and this people the wood it consumes.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Yahweh God of Hosts addresses the house of Israel immediately after pronouncing judgment on the prophets whose messages are empty wind.

The words — לָ/כֵ֗ן (la./Khen) translates literally to "therefore," marking the structural pivot from the preceding judgment to God's own response, while יַ֚עַן (Ya.'an) means "because," specifying the cause of the coming action.

The thread — The text's description of divine speech as fire is directly paralleled in Jeremiah 23:29, which declares God's word like fire and a hammer, and contrasts with Jeremiah 1:9 where God places His words in a prophet's mouth for deliverance rather than consumption.

Why it lands — The passage states that God will turn His own words into a fire that consumes the people who provoked Him, requiring the reader to acknowledge that divine speech operates as an instrument of judgment that cannot be ignored or manipulated.

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

Wherefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Cross-references

Jeremiah 23:29 “Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?”
Jeremiah 1:9 Then the LORD reached out His hand, touched my mouth, and said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
Hosea 6:5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth, and My judgments go forth like lightning.
Revelation 11:5 If anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone who wants to harm them must be killed.
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.’”
2 Kings 1:10 Elijah answered the captain, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” And fire came down from heaven and consumed the captain and his fifty men.
Jeremiah 28:15 Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah! The LORD did not send you, but you have persuaded this people to trust in a lie.