What Does Jeremiah 36:16 Mean?
Now it came to be, when they had heard all the words, that they were afraid, each man toward his neighbor, and said to Baruch, We will surely tell the king of all these words.
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
Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, they were afraid both one and other, and said unto Baruch, We will surely tell the king of all these words.THE KEY
The words become a shared matter: alarm turns the hearers toward one another, then the Hebrew’s doubled “tell” carries the message toward the king.
THE MEANING
When words lay a consequential matter bare, fear can be shared instead of hidden: the hearers turn toward one another, then decide the king must hear it. The verse traces a living movement from hearing, to shared recognition, to speech.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Fear must make what I have heard unsayable; here the hearers are alarmed and still decide to make the words known.
THE ROOT
הַדְּבָרִים
ha-devarim
GROWS FROM
דבר
דָּבָר (dābār) means “word,” and can also mean “matter” or “affair”; the root carries the sense of speaking.
In Hebrew, dābār can name a spoken word and a matter or affair. “All these words” therefore carries the sense of a message that is already a consequential matter, not sound alone.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: word; matter; affair
דָּבָר
The same noun can name both the utterance and the matter being spoken about, giving the hearers’ message weight beyond sound.
dibber: to speak; he spoke
דִּבֵּר
This verbal form shows the word as speech that can be carried from one person to another.
הַגֵּד נַגִּיד
haggēd naggîd
GROWS FROM
נגד
נָגַד (nagad) means “make known” or “declare,” bringing something into view.
The Hebrew pairs an infinitive absolute with its verb, intensifying the declaration: “we will surely tell.” The repeated tell-root turns their alarm into a decision to disclose the message.
ALSO GROWS
higgid: declared; made known
הִגִּיד
This form of the root names the act the hearers promise: making the words known.
maggid: one who declares; announcer
מַגִּיד
The same root can name the person who carries news, underscoring how the message moves through its speakers.
בְּהָלְאָה
bəhālāʾāh
GROWS FROM
בהל
בָּהַל (bāhal) means “be alarmed,” “be dismayed,” or “be hurried.”
“afraid” in this verse is bəhālāʾāh. The word carries the force of alarm and agitation. In the verse, that alarm is shared between the hearers and leads directly into their promise to speak.
ALSO GROWS
behālāh: alarm; sudden fear
בֶּהָלָה
This noun names the urgent disturbance felt as the hearers take in the words.
nivhal: became alarmed; was dismayed
נִבְהַל
This related form makes the response an experience of being shaken, not a detached judgment.
THE PATTERN
A heard word becomes a matter among its hearers, visible in their response and carried onward in speech.
And it came to pass, when the king had heard and responded to the words of the scroll of instruction, that he tore his garments.And Nehemiah the governor, and Ezra the priest, the writer, and the Levites who caused the people to tell the difference, said to all the people, This day is set apart to the LORD your God. Do not mourn, nor weep. For all the people were weeping as they heard and responded to the words of the instruction.For we cannot keep from speaking what we have perceived and heard.THE THREAD
Then Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD which he had spoken to him, upon a roll of a book.Both verses use דָּבָר (dābār, “word; matter”) for what is spoken and carried onward. This verse reveals the chain inside the message: speech is written, heard, and then carried toward the king.
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