What Does Jeremiah 19:3 Mean?
And say, Hear and respond to the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and those who settle in Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel. Behold, I will bring evil upon this place; everyone who hears it, his ears will ring.
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 say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.THE KEY
The verse turns hearing into consequence: the warning of calamity rings through the very ears asked to receive it.
THE MEANING
A word names calamity here, and its reception has force: the ears of everyone who hears ring. The verse speaks now wherever a warning stops being distant information and becomes something the body registers.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hearing a warning means receiving it as neutral information without consequence.
THE ROOT
תְּצִלֶּינָה
tetsallēnāh
GROWS FROM
צלל
To ring, tinkle, or resound.
“ring” in this verse is tetsallēnāh. The Hebrew verb pictures a sound reverberating in the ears. The warning is not only heard; its impact is rendered as ringing within the hearer.
ALSO GROWS
ṣālal: To ring or tinkle.
צָלַל
This is the sound-verb behind the verse’s form, making the ears’ response a reverberation rather than mere reception.
ṣilṣəlîm: Cymbals.
צִלְצְלִים
This related form names ringing instruments; the shared sound-image makes the ears’ tingling feel like a struck resonance.
רָעָה
rāʿāh
GROWS FROM
רעע
To be bad or harmful; to bring trouble or calamity.
The root holds a range from badness to harm and calamity. Here, “evil” carries the force of disaster coming upon the place, alongside the word’s wider sense of what is bad.
ALSO GROWS
raʿ: Bad, evil, harmful.
רַע
This adjective shows the root’s broad sense of what is bad, which can name both moral wrong and destructive conditions.
rāʿāh: Harm, trouble, calamity.
רָעָה
This noun brings the root’s force into the announced event: the place is struck by calamity.
שִׁמְעוּ
shimʿû
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, or receive what is heard.
“Hear and respond” in this verse is shimʿû. The command “Hear” and the later “whosoever heareth” repeat the same root. The verse begins by calling for hearing, then shows hearing itself as the place where the warning’s force lands.
ALSO GROWS
šāmaʿ: To hear or listen.
שָׁמַע
This is the verb-root behind both the command and the description of each hearer.
šəmûʿāh: A report, tidings, or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This related noun names news as something received by hearing, linking the spoken warning to its hearers.
THE PATTERN
A decisive message becomes a bodily event in the one who hears it.
And the LORD said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a deed in Israel, at which both ears of everyone who hears it will ring.Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel, Look, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will ring.When they heard this, they were pierced in the heart, and said to Peter and to the rest of the sent ones, Men and brothers, what shall we do?THE THREAD
Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel, Look, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will ring.This verse repeats the Hebrew tingle verb צלל (ṣālal, “ring or tingle”) in a closely matching warning of calamity upon Jerusalem. The shared root binds the bodily ringing to the announced disaster, making the ears’ response part of the message’s force.
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