myBibleHistory

Journey of a Passage

Jeremiah 1:11–12

"A rod of an almond tree": shaqed and shoqed

"Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree (shaqed). Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten (shoqed, "watch over") my word to perform it." The vision is a pun: the almond, the first tree to blossom in late winter, is the "watching" tree. The KJV's "hasten" and the Greek's "walnut" (Giguet: "coudrier," hazel) lose the wordplay; Jerome kept it with "virgam vigilantem," "a watchful rod."

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The words as first spoken or writtenlate 7th–6th century BC (by section; debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The words as first spoken or written
Greek
  1. Greek Jeremiah (library: Giguet's French)Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Jeremiah (a shorter edition)
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. late 7th–6th century BC (by section; debated)

    The words as first spoken or written

    – No copy survives

    No original survives, and Jeremiah circulated in at least two ancient Hebrew editions: a shorter one behind the Old Greek and the longer one preserved as the Masoretic Text. The oldest copies are six fragmentary Qumran manuscripts (2QJer, 4QJer-a to 4QJer-e), from about 200 BC to the 1st century AD.

  2. Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592

    Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Et factum est verbum Domini ad me, dicens: Quid tu vides, Jeremia? Et dixi: Virgam vigilantem ego video. Et dixit Dominus ad me: Bene vidisti: quia vigilabo ego super verbo meo, ut faciam illud.

    Latin numbering: Jeremiah 1:11–12. Jerome translated Jeremiah from Hebrew (c. AD 400).

  3. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The words as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    וַיְהִ֤י דְבַר־יְהוָה֙ אֵלַ֣י לֵאמֹ֔ר מָה־אַתָּ֥ה רֹאֶ֖ה יִרְמְיָ֑הוּ וָאֹמַ֕ר מַקֵּ֥ל שָׁקֵ֖ד אֲנִ֥י רֹאֶֽה׃ וַיֹּ֧אמֶר יְהוָ֛ה אֵלַ֖י הֵיטַ֣בְתָּ לִרְא֑וֹת כִּֽי־שֹׁקֵ֥ד אֲנִ֛י עַל־דְּבָרִ֖י לַעֲשֹׂתֽוֹ׃

    What do you see, Jeremiah? I said, I see an almond branch. The LORD said to me, You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to do it (vv. 11–12)

    Hebrew numbering: Jeremiah 1:11–12.

  4. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.

  5. Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Jeremiah (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Jeremiah (a shorter edition)

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Et la parole du Seigneur vint à moi, disant: Que vois-tu? Et je répondis: Je vois une verge de coudrier. Et le Seigneur me dit: Tu as bien vu; car je veillerai sur mes paroles pour les accomplir.

    Greek (digital file) numbering: Jeremiah 1:11–12. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check only), in the Greek book's own order and verse numbering; a C check needs Ziegler's Göttingen Jeremiah or Rahlfs–Hanhart.

What changed, and why

Classification: stable Hebrew text; a wordplay that translations handle differently.

Shaqed (almond) and shoqed (watching) share the consonants sh-q-d.

Aaron's rod budded with almonds (Numbers 17:8).

What the evidence shows

  • What the text saysJeremiah 1:11–12 plays on shaqed and shoqed.
  • What the text saysThe Vulgate preserves the wordplay as "a watchful rod."

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Jeremiah 1: Before I Formed Thee →"The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth": the word of the LORD came to him in the thirteenth year of King Josiah (about 627/626 BC) and through the reigns of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, "unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month" (1:1–3). "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee… I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." "Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child." God touches his mouth and sets him over nations "to root out, and to pull down… to build, and to plant" (vv. 4–10). Two visions: an almond rod, because God is "watching" over his word; a boiling pot tilted from the north, for evil will break out from the north on Judah (vv. 11–16). "Gird up thy loins… I have made thee this day a defenced city… they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee" (vv. 17–19).