Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageI know, Yahweh, that no one is the master of their own path — no one walking through this life can direct their own steps.
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GI know, YHWH, that a man's way is not his own; it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
KJV
King James VersionO LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleI know, O LORD, that a man’s way is not his own; no one who walks directs his own steps.
Footnotes
One of the most theologically arresting verses in all of Jeremiah, and one of Scripture's profoundest statements on human contingency. *Lo la-adam darko* — literally 'not to man is his way' — the road does not belong to the walker. This is not fatalism but covenantal dependence: the recognition that human self-direction without YHWH is precisely what has produced the catastrophe of vv. 17–22. The verse pivots the lament into prayer (vv. 23–25), a movement from grief to surrender. FOG preserves the literal syntax to let the philosophical weight land; FOG Message expands to 'master of their own path' to make the existential claim immediate for the contemporary reader.