What Does Jeremiah 27:14 Mean?
Do not hear and respond to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon, for they prophesy a lie to 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
Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.THE KEY
The verse’s sharpest warning is that a promise of freedom can be the lie itself.
THE MEANING
This verse places the promise that you will not serve the king of Babylon beside the prophets’ words, and names their claim a lie. “Hearken not” reaches into the response those words seek from you: hearing can become receiving and acting. The warning is alive wherever a promise of relief asks you to trust it by ignoring the truth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A promise of freedom must be true because it sounds like good news.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁמְעוּ
tishmeʿu
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, heed; hear and respond when a response is implied.
“do not hear and respond” in this verse is tishmeʿu. The line reaches beyond sound entering the ear: שָׁמַע (shamaʿ, hear) can carry the sense of receiving and responding. The warning concerns whether these words gain authority over your response.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: “Hear!”; an imperative to hear and heed.
שְׁמַע
The familiar call to hear also carries a response, illuminating what this verse warns you not to give the prophets’ words.
shemuʿah: Report, news, or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
A report is what hearing carries forward; here, the words you receive can shape what you trust.
תַּעַבְדוּ
taʿavdu
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
Work, serve, labor.
“serve” in this verse is taʿavdu. The claim concerns actual service, not an abstraction. The same root names the servant and the work or service performed, so the verse’s disputed promise concerns whose rule shapes daily labor.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: Servant or worker.
עֶבֶד
The person who serves shares the root of the service the prophets claim will not happen.
ʿavodah: Work, labor, or service.
עֲבֹדָה
This branch makes the promise concrete: the disputed future concerns work and service.
שֶׁקֶר
sheqer
GROWS FROM
שקר
sh-q-r
To lie, deceive, or deal falsely; falsehood.
The verse names the prophets’ message as falsehood, not merely as a prediction that might disappoint. The root also describes the act of dealing falsely, so the lie is both the message and what the speakers are doing with it.
ALSO GROWS
shaqar: To lie or deal falsely.
שָׁקַר
The verb shows falsehood as an act, not only as an inaccurate statement.
ʿed sheqer: False witness.
עֵד שָׁקֶר
The same root can describe false testimony, linking a lie to words offered as something to trust.
THE PATTERN
A prophet’s claim does not become trustworthy because it sounds reassuring; false words must be recognized for what they are.
When the prophet speaks in the nature of the LORD, if the word does not come to be, nor arrive, it is the word the LORD has not spoken, but the prophet has spoken it in a boiling over. You shall not cower from him.Watch for false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inside they are snatching wolves.Beloved, do not lean your weight on every breath, but test the breaths, whether they come out of God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.THE THREAD
Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, Hear and respond now, Hananiah. The LORD has not sent you, but you make this people lean their full weight upon a lie.Both verses use שֶׁקֶר (sheqer, falsehood) for the lie. Jeremiah 28:15 opens the warning further: the false message does more than promise relief; it draws people into trusting what is false.
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