What Does Jeremiah 35:13 Mean?
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel. Go and say to the men of Judah and to those who settle in Jerusalem, Will you not take the straightening to hear and respond to my words? declares 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
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will ye not receive instruction to hearken to my words? saith the LORD.THE KEY
The verse reveals instruction as corrective shaping: to refuse to hear is to refuse the change the words expose.
THE MEANING
This question reaches you where God’s words meet your resistance: do you take in correction, or only encounter its sound? Here, hearing means responding to what the words reveal. The verse names the gap between being addressed and receiving what is said.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that hearing the words is the same as receiving them dissolves here; the verse distinguishes exposure from response.
THE ROOT
מוּסָר
mûsār
GROWS FROM
יסר
y-s-r
to discipline, correct, or train
“straightening” in this verse is mûsār. “Instruction” can sound like information, but mûsār carries the sense of correction that shapes. The verse asks whether you receive words that challenge and form you, not simply whether you hear information.
ALSO GROWS
yāsar: to discipline, admonish, or correct
יָסַר
This verb shows the formative force carried by the instruction in the verse.
yissûrîm: chastisements or corrections
יִסּוּרִים
This branch makes clear that the root can name correction that is difficult to receive, not only teaching that is easy to accept.
תִּקְחוּ
tiqḥû
GROWS FROM
לקח
l-q-ḥ
to take, take up, or receive
“take” in this verse is tiqḥû. The Hebrew pictures instruction as something taken in. A related noun from this root means teaching, linking learning with what is received rather than merely delivered.
ALSO GROWS
lāqaḥ: to take, take up, or receive
לָקַח
This is the root verb behind “receive”: the question is whether instruction is taken in.
leqaḥ: teaching or learning
לֶקַח
This related noun connects what is learned with what is taken in, echoing the verse’s question about receiving instruction.
לִשְׁמֹעַ
lishmōaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
to hear, listen, and heed
“hear and respond” in this verse is lishmōaʿ. The Hebrew root can hold hearing and heeding together. The verse’s question reaches beyond whether words arrive at the ear to whether they are heard with a response.
ALSO GROWS
shāmaʿ: to hear, listen, or heed
שָׁמַע
This verb carries the sense of responsive hearing in “hearken to my words.”
shemûʿāh: a report or message heard
שְׁמוּעָה
This related noun shows the root’s link between hearing and what is received as a message.
THE PATTERN
Instruction works as correction that trains hearing into a lived response.
Hear and respond, my son, to the straightening of your father, and do not let go of your mother's instruction.And you shall perceive in your heart, that as a man straightens his son, so the LORD your God straightens you.All training, for the present, does not seem to be joy but pain; but afterward it gives back the wholesome fruit of alignment to those who have been exercised by it.THE THREAD
Hear and respond, my son, to the straightening of your father, and do not let go of your mother's instruction.Proverbs joins the same Hebrew words for “hear” and “instruction” that Jeremiah brings together. The shared roots show that hearing instruction means receiving its shaping, not merely noticing its sound.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us