---
title: Jeremiah 23:5
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/jeremiah-23-5/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/jeremiah-23-5.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Jeremiah 23:5
testament: OT
section: Prophets
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Jeremiah 23:5

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He will reign wisely as King and will administer justice and righteousness in the land.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "'Look! The days are coming,' declares Jehovah, 'when I will raise up to David a righteous sprout. And a king will reign and show insight and uphold justice and righteousness in the land.'"

## JW Usage

Read straightforwardly as Messianic — the promised Davidic king who reigns with insight and justice. The Watchtower reads the verse comfortably; the difficulty for the JW reading begins at verse 6, where the same king is named "Jehovah Is Our Righteousness."

## Protestant Usage

Jeremiah 23:5 sets up the trinitarian dilemma of verse 6. The same Messianic figure that JWs accept here is, in the next verse, given the divine name as his own name. Pair the two verses with Isaiah 9:6 ("Mighty God"), Isaiah 6:1 read through John 12:41 (Isaiah saw Jesus' glory), and Genesis 5:2 (a shared name signals a shared nature). The promised righteous king is not merely Jehovah's appointee; he bears Jehovah's name because he shares Jehovah's nature.

## NWT Issue

The Hebrew tsemach — the standard Messianic vocabulary used in Isaiah 11:1, Zechariah 3:8, and Zechariah 6:12 — has been rendered "Branch" in the English Bible tradition for four centuries (KJV, ESV, NASB; NIV "Branch"). The NWT renders it "righteous sprout." The translation is defensible at the level of bare Hebrew vocabulary, but it severs the intertextual cord between Jeremiah 23:5 and the broader prophetic Branch-Messiah pattern. A reader using the NWT will not see Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Zechariah linking arms over the same Messianic title; the thread of canonical typology is quietly cut.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Jehovah/Adam Name Analogy](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/jehovah-adam-analogy.md) — Genesis 5:2 — One Name, Two Persons [Deity of Christ]