What Does Jeremiah 32:33 Mean?
And they have turned to me the nape, and not the face. Though I taught them, rising early and teaching them, yet they have not heard and responded, nor taken the straightening.
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 they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.THE KEY
The turned back is already an answer: teaching can be repeated while the hearer never receives it.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to the moment when you encounter words of correction but do not take them in as instruction. Its image is physical and plain: a back offered where a face would meet the speaker, even while teaching continues. The words are present; the receiving is not.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hearing teaching means receiving it. The verse separates exposure to repeated words from the response that takes correction in.
THE ROOT
שֹׁמְעִים
shom'im
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen; in this clause, hear responsively.
“heard and responded” in this verse is shom'im. English “hearken” can sound like simply listening, but the verse says they are not hearing in order to receive instruction. The root carries hearing that responds, so the failure is not lack of teaching but hearing that never becomes reception.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear; hear and respond when the context implies response.
שְׁמַע
This branch makes clear that hearing can include the answer made to what is heard.
shemu'ah: Report, news, or tidings.
שְׁמוּעָה
A report is a message heard and received; this branch keeps the sound and its message joined, highlighting what is missing here.
מוּסָר
musar
GROWS FROM
יסר
y-s-r
Discipline, correction, or chastening.
“the straightening” in this verse is musar. The instruction here is musar, from a root of correction: what is offered is formative, not information alone. To receive it is to let correction land, which gives the refusal a sharper edge.
ALSO GROWS
yasar: Discipline, chasten, or correct.
יָסַר
The verb shows the corrective force carried by the instruction offered in the verse.
musar: Discipline, instruction, or correction.
מוּסָר
This noun names the kind of teaching that asks to be received, not merely heard.
וָאֲלַמֵּד
va'alammed
GROWS FROM
למד
l-m-d
Learn; in the teaching form, teach or train.
“taught” in this verse is va'alammed. The same root holds learning and teaching, while its verb forms show the direction of the action. English separates teacher and learner; the Hebrew keeps their connection visible, even as this verse describes teaching without learning received.
ALSO GROWS
lamad: Learn or be trained.
לָמַד
This learner-side form shows what the repeated teaching is meant to reach.
limmed: Teach or train.
לִמֵּד
This teaching-side form is the action named in the verse, joined by the same root to learning.
THE PATTERN
Scripture measures hearing by whether the word is received into response, not by how often it is heard.
And now, because you have done all these works, says the LORD, and I spoke to you, rising early and speaking, but you did not hear and respond; and I called you, but you did not answer.For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you will hear and respond to his voice. Do not stiffen your heart, as at Meribah, the striving, as on the day of Massah, the testing place, in the wilderness.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
That you may love the LORD your God, and that you may hear and respond to his voice, and that you may cling to him; for he is your life, and the lengthening of your days; that you may settle upon the ground the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.“Obey” here translates לִשְׁמֹעַ (lishmoa), “to hear,” from the same root שמע as Jeremiah’s “hearkened.” The shared root reveals hearing as a response that cleaves to the voice, not mere contact with sound.
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