What Does Jeremiah 2:4 Mean?
Hear and respond to the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel.
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
Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:THE KEY
The summons reaches every family, and its “hearing” is a response to a word with substance.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as part of a whole household; no family is outside the reach of the call. To hear the LORD’s word is to meet an address that bears on life and calls for response. The names Jacob and Israel hold together the heel-grasper and the one who strives with God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Only a leader stands within reach of God’s word; here the summons reaches the whole people and every family.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעוּ
shimʿu
GROWS FROM
שמע
š-m-ʿ
Hear, listen; in context, hearing can include an answering response.
“hear and respond” in this verse is shimʿu. The command is more than registering sound: it calls the hearer into a response. The plural form addresses the whole people, so the listening is shared across the household.
ALSO GROWS
shama: Hear, listen
שָׁמַע
The verb’s broader range lets “hear” carry the sense of attending to an address.
shemuʿah: Report, tidings
שְׁמוּעָה
The same root names what is heard, linking the act of listening with the message received.
דְּבַר
devar
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak, utter.
Davar can mean both a spoken word and a matter or thing. The LORD’s word is therefore presented as an address with substance, touching the life of the whole household.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, utterance; also matter or thing
דָּבָר
Its range joins speech to the matter being spoken about.
dibber: Spoke
דִּבֵּר
The verb makes clear that the word is an act of speaking, not merely an idea.
יַעֲקֹב
Yaʿaqov
GROWS FROM
עקב
ʿ-q-b
Heel; follow at the heel, supplant.
Jacob’s name is tied to the heel and the act of following at the heel or supplanting. The paired name Israel (יִשְׂרָאֵל, Yisra’el, “one who strives with God”) carries the encounter named in Genesis 32:28; the call reaches the people under both names.
ALSO GROWS
ʿaqev: Heel
עָקֵב
The name Jacob is linked to the heel in the account of his birth.
ʿaqav: Follow at the heel, supplant
עָקַב
This action gives the name Jacob its deeper story of grasping and striving.
THE PATTERN
The call to hear treats listening as an encounter that draws a response, not passive sound.
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you will hear and respond to his voice.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
But this word I commanded them, saying, Hear and respond to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in every way that I have commanded you, so that it may be good for you.“Obey my voice” translates the same Hebrew root שמע (sh-m-ʿ, hear/listen) as “Hear ye” here. The repeated root opens hearing into an answering posture, followed by belonging and a walked path.
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