What Does Jeremiah 36:25 Mean?
Still Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had stepped in before the king with a plea that he not burn the roll, but he would not hear and respond to them.
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
Nevertheless Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll: but he would not hear them.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for intercession begins as an encounter: the plea meets the king’s intended destruction, though he refuses to let it change his course.
THE MEANING
The scene puts you beside a threatened word: three people meet power with a plea, and the person who can stop the fire refuses to receive them. Elnathan (אֶלְנָתָן, ʾEl-nātān, “God has given”), Delaiah (דְּלָיָהוּ, Dəlāyāhû, “Yah has drawn out”), and Gemariah (גְּמַרְיָהוּ, Gəmaryāhû, “Yah has completed”) carry giving, drawing out, and completion into this moment of refusal.
THE ROOT
הִפְגִּיעוּ
hipgîʿû
GROWS FROM
פגע
p-g-ʿ
Meet, encounter, or come upon; in this verb form, entreat or intercede.
“stepped in before” in this verse is hipgîʿû. פגע is the root of meeting or encountering; in this form, the verb means to entreat or intercede. The officials’ plea is an encounter placed in front of the king’s decision, their intervention meets the act before it reaches the scroll.
ALSO GROWS
pāgaʿ: Meet, encounter, or come upon.
פָּגַע
This ordinary sense is the root beneath the officials’ intercession: they meet the king with a plea.
hipgîaʿ: Entreat, intercede, or make an appeal.
הִפְגִּיעַ
This related form names the act of bringing a plea before someone who can intervene.
שָׁמַע
shāmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, or heed.
“hear and respond” in this verse is shāmaʿ. Here “hear” is שָׁמַע (shāmaʿ): listening that can become heed and response. The line says the king would not hear them, so the failure is not the absence of sound but the refusal of reception.
ALSO GROWS
šəmaʿ: Hear, listen, or heed.
שְׁמַע
This familiar form carries hearing toward response, showing what the king withholds from the plea.
šəmûʿāh: Report, tidings, or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch names what reaches a listener as a report; the king refuses to receive even their direct appeal.
THE PATTERN
A plea can meet destructive power, yet a hearer who refuses response can let the harm proceed.
But when Pharaoh saw that there was room to breathe, he made his heart heavy, and did not hear and respond to them, as the LORD had said.But they refused to bend the ear, and turned a shoulder aside, and made their ears heavy so they would not hear and respond.Then they cried out with a loud voice, and held shut their ears, and rushed upon him with one passion.THE THREAD
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the plunder with the strong, because he poured out his living soul to death, and was counted with the rebels. He carried the falling short of many, and for the rebels he stepped in.Isaiah’s יַפְגִּיעַ (yapgîaʿ, “he intercedes”) shares the root פגע (p-g-ʿ, “meet, encounter”) with Jeremiah’s הִפְגִּיעוּ (hipgîʿû, “they interceded”). Jeremiah shows this encounter aimed at preventing the scroll’s destruction; Isaiah uses the same root for interceding on behalf of those in rebellion.
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