What Does Jeremiah 14:12 Mean?
When they fast, I will not hear and respond to their cry; and when they offer up the ascending offering and the grain gift, I will not be pleased with them. But I will spend them by the sword, and by the hunger, and by the plague.
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
When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.THE KEY
The hearing withheld here is a response: fasting and offerings do not make the cry received.
THE MEANING
The verse confronts you with a cry that is not answered and an offering that is not accepted. It names sword, famine, and pestilence as consuming forces, with no ritual canceling that judgment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that fasting or sacred offerings can guarantee divine acceptance or shield you from consequence.
THE ROOT
שֹׁמֵעַ
shomeaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, heed.
“hear and respond” in this verse is shomeaʿ. The Hebrew word family joins hearing with attending to what is heard. Here, “I will not hear” can carry the force of a response withheld, not merely a sound that goes unnoticed.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: He heard, listened, heeded.
שָׁמַע
This verb shows how hearing can extend into attending to or heeding what reaches the ear.
shemuʿah: Report, news; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
A report is what has been heard and carried onward, keeping this root’s sense of hearing connected to reception and response.
THE PATTERN
Fasting, prayer, and sacrifice do not compel divine hearing or acceptance.
When you spread your palms, I will shut my eyes to you. Even when you multiply your prayers, I will not hear and respond. Your hands are filled with blood.Though you bring up to me ascending offerings and your grain gifts, I will not be pleased with them, and I will not look upon the wholeness offerings of your fattened beasts.Woe to you, writers and separated ones, masked ones! For you give a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, and you have let go of the heavier matters of the instruction, the judgment, the faithful love, and the trust. These you ought to have done, and not let go of the others.THE THREAD
If I see crookedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear and respond.Both verses use שׁמע (shamaʿ), hear, listen, heed. Psalm 66:18 names what stands between the heart and hearing; Jeremiah 14:12 shows that fasting and offerings do not turn a withheld response into acceptance.
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