KING JAMES VERSION (KJV)
TRANSLATION, MEANING, CONTEXT
To get what Jeremiah 6:20 means based on its source text, scroll down or follow these links for the original scriptural meaning , biblical context and relative popularity.
“To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.”
What does this verse really mean? Use this table to get a word-for-word translation of the original Hebrew Scripture. This shows the English words related to the source biblical texts along with brief definitions. Follow the buttons in the right-hand column for detailed definitions and verses that use the same root words. Use this reference information to gain deeper insight into the Bible and enrich your understanding. Information based on Strong's Exhaustive Concordance[1].
| KJV Verse | Original Hebrew | Meaning/ Definition This is a simplified translation of the original Hebrew word. Follow the buttons on the right to get more detail. | More Use the buttons below to get details on the Hebrew word and view related Bible verses that use the same root word. |
|---|---|---|---|
| “To what” | לָמָּה | Properly, interrogative what? (including how? why? when?); but also exclamation, what! (including how!), or indefinitely what (including whatever, and even relatively, that which); often used with prefixes in various adverbial or conjunctive senses | To what |
| “purpose” | זֶּ֨ה | The masculine demonstrative pronoun, this or that | purpose |
| “cometh” | תָב֔וֹא | To go or come (in a wide variety of applications) | cometh |
| “there to me incense” | לְבוֹנָה֙ | Frankincense (from its whiteness or perhaps that of its smoke) | incense |
| “from Sheba,” | מִשְּׁבָ֣א | Sheba, the name of three early progenitors of tribes and of an Ethiopian district | Sheba |
| “and the sweet” | הַטּ֖וֹב | Good (as an adjective) in the widest sense; used likewise as a noun, both in the masculine and the feminine, the singular and the plural (good, a good or good thing, a good man or woman; the good, goods or good things, good men or women), also as an adverb (well) | sweet |
| “cane” | וְקָנֶ֥ה | A reed (as erect); by resemblance a rod (especially for measuring), shaft, tube, stem, the radius (of the arm), beam (of a steelyard) | cane |
| “from a far” | מֶרְחָ֑ק | Remoteness, i.e., (concretely) a distant place; often (adverbially) from afar | far |
| “country?” | מֵאֶ֣רֶץ | The earth (at large, or partitively a land) | country |
| “your burnt offerings” | עֹלֽוֹתֵיכֶם֙ | A step or (collectively, stairs, as ascending); usually a holocaust (as going up in smoke) | burnt offerings |
| “are” | (No Hebrew definition. English implied.) | ||
| “not” | לֹ֣א | Not (the simple or abs. negation); by implication, no; often used with other particles | not |
| “acceptable,” | לְרָצ֔וֹן | Delight (especially as shown) | acceptable |
| “nor” | לֹא | Not (the simple or abs. negation); by implication, no; often used with other particles | nor |
| “your sacrifices” | וְזִבְחֵיכֶ֖ם | Properly, a slaughter, i.e., the flesh of an animal; by implication, a sacrifice (the victim or the act) | sacrifices |
| “sweet” | עָ֥רְבוּ | To be agreeable | sweet |
| “unto me.” | עָ֥רְבוּ | To be agreeable | unto me |
See Jeremiah 6:20 with its adjacent verses in bold below. Follow either of the two large buttons below to see these verses in their broader context of the King James Bible or a Bible concordance.
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18 Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.
19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.
20 To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.
21 Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will lay stumblingblocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish.
22 Thus saith the Lord, Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth.
The King James Bible (1611) and Strong's Concordance (1890) with Hebrew and Greek dictionaries are sourced from the BibleForgeDB database (https://github.com/bibleforge) within the BibleForge project (http://bibleforge.com). Popularity rankings are based on search volume data from the Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool.