What Does Jeremiah 22:29 Mean?
O earth, land, earth, 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
O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.THE KEY
The earth is no silent backdrop: it is named three times and commanded to hear the LORD’s word.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s word calls the earth to hear, so the ground beneath you belongs within the address rather than outside it. The threefold call places your hearing inside a world that is itself summoned to attend.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Only people hear the LORD’s word; the earth is merely silent scenery.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעִי
shimi
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, heed, and respond.
“hear and respond” in this verse is shimi. English “hear” can sound like passively receiving a sound, while שָׁמַע (shama) can carry the sense of listening and responding. The feminine singular command שִׁמְעִי addresses the earth as a hearer, making creation part of the scene rather than its backdrop.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear; listen and respond.
שְׁמַע
The same root appears in the call to hear, showing that hearing can include a response to what is received.
shemuʿah: A report or news; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
What is heard can become a report passed on, extending the word beyond the moment of listening.
דְּבַר
devar
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak; a spoken word or matter.
דָּבָר (davar) can mean both a word and a matter or thing. The LORD’s word is thus more than sound: it is a spoken matter set before a hearer, here the earth itself.
ALSO GROWS
davar: A word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The verse’s “word” carries the sense of a matter given to be heard, not sound detached from substance.
dibber: He spoke or uttered.
דִּבֵּר
The spoken action and the word belong to the same family, joining the LORD’s speaking to the earth’s hearing.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s word reaches the whole created order, with the earth addressed as a hearer and moved by the divine voice.
Tilt your ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and let the earth hear and respond to the words of my mouth.Hear and respond, O heavens, and bend your ear, O earth, for the LORD has spoken. I have raised children and lifted them high, and they have broken away from me.whose voice then shook the earth, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.”THE THREAD
Tilt your ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and let the earth hear and respond to the words of my mouth.Both verses join the earth to hearing and use the same Hebrew roots for “hear” (שמע, shama) and “word” (דבר, davar). Deuteronomy widens the summons to include the heavens, revealing a broader call for creation to hear.
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