What Does Deuteronomy 13:12 Mean?
If you hear it said in one of your cities, which the LORD your God has given you to settle there, saying,
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying,THE KEY
The verse opens with a report reaching your ears, but leaves its claim unconfirmed.
THE MEANING
A report can reach you about a whole community and the place it inhabits. Here you stand at the moment of hearing: the words have arrived, while their truth and what follows remain unstated. The verse keeps the report and the finding distinct.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁמַע
tishmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, listen, or heed; the context determines whether a response is implied.
The Hebrew says tishmaʿ … lemor: you hear … saying. The ear receives the message, while the saying supplies its content; a related form, shemuah, means report or news, so the verse begins with news arriving while leaving its truth unstated.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear or listen; when a response is implied, hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
It shows how hearing can include a response, though this verse names the reception of a report without yet stating what response follows.
shemuah: A report or news; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This related word makes the link between hearing and reported news visible in the verse’s opening.
THE PATTERN
Hearing begins discernment; it does not complete it.
The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to swell.These were of nobler birth than those in Thessalonica, who received the word with all eagerness of heart, and sifted the writings daily, whether these things held so.THE THREAD
The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.The word translated “heareth” in Proverbs comes from שמע (shama), the same root as the hearing that opens Deuteronomy 13:12. Together, the verses distinguish a message reaching you from answering as though the matter were already settled.
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