What Does Jeremiah 26:4 Mean?
And you shall say to them, "Thus says the LORD. If you will not hear and respond to me, to walk in my instruction, which I have set before you,
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 thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you,THE KEY
Here, hearing the LORD has a destination: the instruction before you becomes a path your life can walk.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s instruction stands before you as a path, and the verse joins hearing the voice to walking that path. Its warning names a split that remains possible now: the words are heard while the way they open is refused.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that listening is complete once words reach the ears: here, hearing opens into a walk.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁמְעוּ
tishmeʿu
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, or heed; when response is implied, to hear and respond.
“hear and respond” in this verse is tishmeʿu. In this verse, תִּשְׁמְעוּ (tishmeʿu, you hear or listen) is followed by לָלֶכֶת (lalechet, to walk), placing hearing on a path toward response. The root holds listening and heeding together, so “hearken” reaches beyond sound reaching the ear.
ALSO GROWS
shemiʿah: Hearing or listening.
שְׁמִיעָה
It names the act of receiving what is heard, which this verse carries onward into walking.
mishmaʿat: Obedience or discipline.
מִשְׁמַעַת
This branch shows how hearing can name a responsive act, not only an impression received.
לָלֶכֶת
lalechet
GROWS FROM
הלך
To walk or go, to move along a way.
“walk” in this verse is lalechet. The instruction is something walked, so the verse makes response a course of movement rather than an idea held at a distance. The root can name both bodily walking and going along a way, joining the words before you to the way you travel.
ALSO GROWS
halikhah: Walking or going.
הֲלִיכָה
It names movement along a way, echoing the verse’s picture of instruction as something walked.
mahalakh: A course, process, or progression.
מַהֲלָךְ
It extends walking into the course a life takes, revealing the path-like force of the instruction.
THE PATTERN
Hearing instruction becomes whole through the path it produces.
And Moses called all Israel, and said to them, Hear and respond, O Israel, to the statutes and the judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that you may learn them, and guard them, and do them.Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you, but to stand in awe of the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your living soul,Both verses use הָלַךְ (halakh, walk or go), making instruction a way traveled. Jeremiah names the break when that walk is refused; Deuteronomy places the same walk beside love and service.
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