What Does Genesis 37:6 Mean?
And he said to them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed.
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
And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:THE KEY
The dream enters shared life through a request to be heard before anyone weighs what it means.
THE MEANING
When a private image or insight presses toward expression, this verse shows it entering shared life through a request to be heard. Reception comes before interpretation: the listener is asked to make room for the dream before its meaning is weighed.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעוּ
shimʿu
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear or listen, with the sense extending to heeding and responding.
The plural imperative makes this a request to a group, while the root שמע (shamaʿ, hear and heed) gives listening the sense of engaged reception. Joseph asks for the dream to reach his brothers as something they attend to, not merely as sound.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: Hear, listen, heed.
שָׁמַע
This verbal form shows that hearing can include taking in and responding to what is heard.
shemuʿah: A report or news; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The branch links hearing with what is carried from one person to another, as Joseph’s dream is shared with his brothers.
THE PATTERN
A word or vision becomes relational through attentive hearing before it becomes understood.
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, for your servant hears and responds.So then trust comes out of hearing, and hearing comes through the word of God.THE THREAD
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.Deuteronomy opens with the same root שמע (shamaʿ, hear and heed), giving Joseph’s request the sense of attentive reception. Here, as there, hearing is the threshold through which what follows can be received.
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