What Does Jeremiah 26:5 Mean?
To hear and respond to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent to you, rising early and sending them, but you have not heard and responded.
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
To hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them, but ye have not hearkened;THE KEY
The break is not a lack of words, but the gap between being repeatedly addressed and actually hearing.
THE MEANING
You are addressed through words that keep arriving; the passage holds persistent sending beside the absence of response. It names the gap between a message reaching you and that message being received as something to answer.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that silence means no message has been sent is undone: here, repeated sending continues while hearing fails.
THE ROOT
לִשְׁמֹעַ
lishmoaʿ
GROWS FROM
שׁמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, attend to; in this passage, hear and respond.
“hear and respond” in this verse is lishmoaʿ. The same root appears in the call to hear and in the statement that you have not heard. The verse exposes the difference between words reaching you and their being received as something to answer.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear; hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This familiar form shows that hearing in the verse can carry a response, not just the arrival of sound.
shemuʿah: A report or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
A message can be present as a report, while the verse still names a failure to truly hear it.
שֹׁלֵחַ
sholeaḥ
GROWS FROM
שלח
sh-l-ḥ
Send out, dispatch, release.
“sent / sending” in this verse is sholeaḥ. The sending verb appears twice: the messengers are sent toward you, and they are sent again. Its sense of movement outward makes the persistence plain, the message keeps going forth, even as hearing fails to meet it.
ALSO GROWS
shaliaḥ: An emissary, one who is sent.
שָׁלִיחַ
The prophets are presented as people sent to carry words toward you.
shilluach: A sending away or dismissal; release.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch makes the outward movement in “sending them” visible: something is released and sent forth.
THE PATTERN
In scripture, hearing is a response that carries the received word into action.
Now therefore, if you will truly hear and respond to my voice, and guard my covenant, then you shall be my own treasure from among all peoples, for all the earth is mine.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.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.THE THREAD
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.The Hebrew behind “obeying” and “hearken” is שׁמע (sh-m-ʿ), the same root repeated in Jeremiah’s verse. Samuel makes explicit what that root reveals: the message is heard when it becomes a response.
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