Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Jeremiah 23:29 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 29. 29Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
The prophetic word through Jeremiah presses the question “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD” at Jeremiah 23:29 within “Near and Far God Rejects Stolen Dreams.”
A God near and far cannot be dodged by private dreams
This verse is one part of that explanation in Jeremiah 23:23–32. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.
Read It With
- Jeremiah 23:23–32
Read Jeremiah 23:29 with 23:23–32. By itself, “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD” can be detached from the speaker, addressee, date, imperial horizon, poetic movement, or outcome that gives it force. The complete unit establishes: Divine presence cannot be hidden from, and dream claims that make people forget God are distinguished from grain-like, fire-like, hammer-like speech.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Within the same chapter, this unit advances from “Council-Tested Speech Contrasts with Self-Sent Visions” into “Near and Far God Rejects Stolen Dreams.” Its non-interchangeable movement is: Divine presence cannot be hidden from, and dream claims that make people forget God are distinguished from grain-like, fire-like, hammer-like speech. This verse's placement is specific: The prophetic word through Jeremiah presses the question “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD” at Jeremiah 23:29 within “Near and Far God Rejects Stolen Dreams.”
Follow the Context
- The unit begins at 23:23 with the speech, scene, image, or date named in its title.
- Divine presence cannot be hidden from, and dream claims that make people forget God are distinguished from grain-like, fire-like, hammer-like speech.
- At 23:32 the movement reaches its response or transition before the next unit.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Fire and hammer imagery does not authorize violent preaching or physical punishment.
What Remains True
The metaphors distinguish effective divine speech from stolen dreams and empty claims. In Jeremiah 23:29, that bounded truth is carried through this verse's role: The prophetic word through Jeremiah presses the question “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD” at Jeremiah 23:29 within “Near and Far God Rejects Stolen Dreams.”
How It Can Shape Life
- Test speech by truth and repair, not intimidation. This verse directs that response through its exact role: The prophetic word through Jeremiah presses the question “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD” at Jeremiah 23:29 within “Near and Far God Rejects Stolen Dreams.”
Teach It Back
Explain Jeremiah 23:29's precise role in Jeremiah 23:23–32: The prophetic word through Jeremiah presses the question “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD” at Jeremiah 23:29 within “Near and Far God Rejects Stolen Dreams.” State how “Near and Far God Rejects Stolen Dreams” controls the line, keep this uncertainty visible—The passage does not ban dreams, therapy, imagination, or metaphor, and it does not authorize violent preaching.—trace role to contextual meaning to enduring truth to application, and reject one use the verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.
Read Jeremiah 23:23–32 — Near and Far God Rejects Stolen DreamsSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
Where care is needed
Readings differ over historical reconstruction, composition, rhetoric, theology, and later reception. The preferred reading follows this complete unit while preserving the limit: The passage does not ban dreams, therapy, imagination, or metaphor, and it does not authorize violent preaching.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Jeremiah 23:23–32, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Jeremiah
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2; fixed commit
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a critical apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Jer.xml, OSIS 23:23–32
Open the fixed Hebrew Jeremiah file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Jeremiah with Translator, Textual, and Study Notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press; official eBible PDF distribution, NET Bible Second Edition; official PDF accessed 2026
Supports: Verse-level controls for Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, dates, names, textual problems, and material translation alternatives.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Jeremiah PDF, pp. 1258-1459, translator, study, and textual notes attached to Jeremiah 23:23–32
Open the official NET Jeremiah PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Jeremiah: Summary, Outline, Background, Introductory Issues, Themes, and Bible in the World
Terence E. Fretheim and Michael Chan
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, current public course accessed 2026
Supports: Reader-oriented historical, literary, theological, and pastoral synthesis with ancient-to-modern limits.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Jeremiah course, Outline and passage studies: kings, prophets, nations, yokes, Hananiah, and exile letter; applied to Jeremiah 23:23–32
Open the Enter the Bible Jeremiah course ↗open university study guide series
Jeremiah and Ezekiel: Jeremiah Parts 1-3 Study Guides
Joel S. Baden and Jacqueline Vayntrub
Yale Bible Study, 2024
Supports: Current university-level literary-historical synthesis and explicit composition questions.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Jeremiah Part 2 study guide, pp. 1-6: prophetic conflict, politics, exile, and restoration; applied to Jeremiah 23:23–32
Open the Yale Jeremiah and Ezekiel course ↗peer reviewed open access article
Jeremiah and Hananiah: A Study of True and False Prophecy
Benjamin Scolnic
Jewish Bible Quarterly 50.2, 2022
Supports: Controls prophetic-conflict claims, especially Jeremiah 28, while keeping outcome, tradition, conduct, and interpretation in conversation.
Exact location: Scolnic, 'Jeremiah and Hananiah: A Study of True and False Prophecy,' Jewish Bible Quarterly 50.2 (2022), pp. 113-118; applied to Jeremiah 23:23–32
Open Scolnic on Jeremiah and Hananiah ↗