What Does Jeremiah 36:10 Mean?
Then Baruch called out from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court, at the opening of the new gate of the LORD's house, in the ears of all the people.
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
Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher court, at the entry of the new gate of the LORD’s house, in the ears of all the people.THE KEY
Here, to read is to call the written word into the ears of everyone gathered.
THE MEANING
The words pass from the book through Baruch’s voice into the hearing of all the people; the word becomes a shared event. Baruch’s name, בָּרוּךְ (barukh, “blessed”), belongs to the one who voices it, while the hearing reaches beyond him to everyone gathered.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a sacred word remains contained on the page: it enters shared life when spoken into the hearing of all.
THE ROOT
וַיִּקְרָא
vayyiqra
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־א
Call, summon; here, read aloud or proclaim.
“called out” in this verse is vayyiqra. The verb translated “read” carries the motion of calling. The scroll’s words enter the room as a voiced summons, and the verse names their destination: the ears of all the people.
ALSO GROWS
miqra: Convocation; public reading.
מִקְרָא
The same root can name a gathering, linking voiced reading with people assembled to hear.
qore: One who calls or reads aloud.
קֹרֵא
The reader is the one who gives the written words a voice before the gathered people.
סֵפֶר
sefer
GROWS FROM
ס־פ־ר
Count, recount, record.
“book / scribe” in this verse is sefer. “Book” (sefer) and “scribe” (sofer) share the same root, whose meanings include counting and recounting. The verse places the record beside its recorder, then carries the words onward into public hearing.
ALSO GROWS
safar: Count, tell, recount.
סָפַר
This root’s recounting sense connects a preserved account with words that are voiced again.
sipper: He told or recounted.
סִפֵּר
This spoken branch echoes Baruch reading the recorded words aloud.
דִּבְרֵי
divrei
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
Speak; word, utterance, or matter.
The root spans the word and the act of speaking it. The “words” in the book are not inert marks here: they return to voice as Baruch reads them to the people.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, utterance, matter.
דָּבָר
The words of Jeremiah are davar: language carried forward into the hearing of others.
dibber: He spoke or uttered.
דִּבֵּר
This spoken form connects the written words with the voiced reading in the verse.
THE PATTERN
A written word becomes shared when it is voiced before a gathered people.
When all Israel comes to see the face of the LORD your God in the place he will choose, you will call out this instruction before all Israel, in their ears.And he called aloud from it before the wide place that was before the gate of the waters, from first light until the middle of the day, facing the men and the women, and those who could tell the difference, and the ears of all the people were turned toward the book of the instruction.And he came to Nazareth, where he had been nourished. As was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read.THE THREAD
And they said to him, Sit down now, and call it out in our ears. So Baruch called it out in their ears.Both verses use קרא (qara, “call” or “read aloud”), and both place the reading in people’s ears. The repeated root makes the mechanism plain: the written word reaches the gathered listeners through a voice.
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