What Does Jeremiah 21:11 Mean?
And to the house of the king of Judah, say, Hear and respond to the word of the LORD.
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 touching the house of the king of Judah, say, Hear ye the word of the LORD;THE KEY
Even the king’s house is named first as a hearer: rule stands under a word that calls for response.
THE MEANING
The place that holds authority in you is addressed by the LORD’s word and summoned to hear and respond. The command places power in the posture of a listener. What rules in you answers to a word it did not create.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that authority answers only to itself is undone here: even the king’s house is told to hear.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעוּ
shim'u
GROWS FROM
שׁמע
shama
To hear, listen, or heed.
“Hear and respond” in this verse is shim'u. The command carries hearing toward response: the royal house is summoned to receive the word and answer it. English can make hearing sound like mere listening, while this root holds listening and heeding together.
ALSO GROWS
shomea: One who hears; a hearer.
שֹׁמֵעַ
The royal house is placed among those who receive an address, rather than above the need to listen.
shemuah: A report or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The word arrives as an address to be received; hearing it opens toward a response.
דְּבַר
devar
GROWS FROM
דָּבַר
davar
To speak; speech, word, or matter.
The LORD’s word is speech with substance, a matter that reaches the royal house and calls for an answer. The verse joins hearing to something spoken that has weight in the life of the one who receives it.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: He spoke; to speak.
דִּבֵּר
The word comes from speech, so the royal house is being addressed, not left with an abstract principle.
davar: A word, speech, or matter.
דָּבָר
The root holds spoken word and matter together, giving the address a claim on the house that hears it.
מֶלֶךְ
melekh
GROWS FROM
מ־ל־ך
malak
To reign or rule.
The king belongs to the language of reigning, yet the verse addresses his house with a command to hear. Rule is shown as something that must receive a word beyond itself.
ALSO GROWS
malakh: To reign or become king.
מָלַךְ
The verb makes the royal title an active form of rule, placing that rule under the summons to hear.
malkut: Kingship, reign, or kingdom.
מַלְכוּת
The same root extends from the king to the realm he governs, so the call to hear reaches the whole sphere of rule.
THE PATTERN
Authority becomes answerable when it receives the word that addresses it.
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.And Samuel said, Does the LORD delight in rising offerings and slaughtered offerings as much as in hearing and responding to the voice of the LORD? Behold, hearing and responding is better than a slaughtered offering; to prick the ear is better than the fat of rams.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.Both verses use שׁמע (shama), meaning to hear, listen, or heed; Jeremiah addresses the royal house with the same root that opens Israel’s confession. The call to hear reaches every sphere, including the one that rules.
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