What Does Jeremiah 36:6 Mean?
Therefore go, and call out from the roll the words of the LORD which you have written from my mouth, in the ears of the people in the LORD's house on the fast day, and you shall also call them out in the ears of all Judah who come out of their cities.
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
Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD’s house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “read” also means “call,” so the scroll’s reading is a voiced summons that gathers listeners.
THE MEANING
The word reaches you as voice carried into the ear, where what is written becomes present and shared. It meets those gathered in a place of worship, then extends outward to people arriving from their cities.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that a sacred word reaches people simply by existing on a page: here, it is voiced and heard.
THE ROOT
וְקָרָאתָ
veqara'ta
GROWS FROM
קרא
q-r-ʾ
To call, summon, or proclaim; in this verse, to read aloud.
“call out” in this verse is veqara'ta. English makes “read” sound like decoding marks on a page. Hebrew qara can also mean to call or proclaim, and miqra names a convocation: reading aloud carries the written word as a call to listeners.
ALSO GROWS
qara: Call, summon, proclaim, or read aloud.
קָרָא
The same verb can name both a spoken call and reading a written text, making this reading an audible act directed toward listeners.
miqra: Convocation or assembly.
מִקְרָא
This noun from the same root names a gathered assembly, echoing how a voiced reading brings a people together around the words.
qeri'ah: Reading or recitation.
קְרִיאָה
This branch keeps the act of reading tied to vocal recitation, joining the written scroll to the ears that receive it.
THE PATTERN
A written word becomes a communal event when someone voices it and others hear.
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.Flourishing is the one who reads aloud, and those who hear the words of this prophecy and guard what is written in it, for the season is at hand.THE THREAD
So they read aloud from the scroll of the instruction of God, spread open, and set the sense in place, and caused the people to perceive in the reading.The same Hebrew verb, קרא (qara), describes reading here and in Nehemiah: the text is voiced before listeners. Nehemiah shows what can follow that voicing, the people receive its sense, making audible reading a passage from written words into shared understanding.
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