What Does Jeremiah 40:3 Mean?
Now the LORD has brought it, and has done as he spoke, because you have missed the mark against the LORD and have not heard and responded to his voice, so this word has come upon you.
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 the LORD hath brought it, and done according as he hath said: because ye have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this thing is come upon you.THE KEY
The Hebrew uses the same root for what the LORD said and the “thing” that has come upon you: the spoken word has become the event you meet.
THE MEANING
What has been spoken now stands before you as an event. The verse names the break as missing the mark and not hearing the LORD’s voice into response; the consequence is no longer abstract.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hearing is only taking in sound: here, hearing the voice includes responding to it.
THE ROOT
דִּבֶּר
dibber
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; its noun branch can name a word, matter, or thing.
“spoke” in this verse is dibber. The verse uses this root for both what the LORD has said and “this thing” that has come upon you. English separates speech from event, while Hebrew lets the same root hold them together.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing
דָּבָר
This is the noun in the verse’s phrase “this thing.”
dibber: He spoke or said
דִּבֵּר
This is the verb behind “according as he hath said.”
שְׁמַעְתֶּם
shema‘tem
GROWS FROM
שׁמע
To hear, listen, and heed; hearing that reaches response.
“heard and responded” in this verse is shema‘tem. The verse’s “obeyed” is built from the Hebrew root for hearing. The failure is framed as a break between the voice and the response it calls forth.
ALSO GROWS
shama: Hear, listen, or heed
שָׁמַע
This is the root action behind “have not obeyed his voice.”
shemuah: A report or something heard
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch keeps hearing at the center, while the verse shows that hearing without response leaves the voice unanswered.
חֲטָאתֶם
chatatem
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss, err, or fail.
“missed the mark” in this verse is chatatem. The verse names the failure with the language of missing. Set beside the root for hearing, it describes a missed mark and a voice not received into response.
ALSO GROWS
chet: Missing, fault, or sin
חֵטְא
This noun preserves the concrete sense of missing that English often compresses into “sin.”
chatta’t: Sin; in ritual contexts, an offering for sin
חַטָּאת
The shared root links the failure named here with the vocabulary of what addresses that failure.
THE PATTERN
A spoken warning becomes an encountered consequence when the voice is not received as response.
But it shall be, if you do not hear and respond to the voice of the LORD your God, to guard and to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.And Samuel said, Does the LORD delight in rising offerings and slaughtered offerings as much as in hearing and responding to the voice of the LORD? Behold, hearing and responding is better than a slaughtered offering; to prick the ear is better than the fat of rams.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
Now therefore, if you will truly hear and respond to my voice, and guard my covenant, then you shall be my own treasure from among all peoples, for all the earth is mine.“Obeyed” in Jeremiah and “obey my voice” in Exodus use the root שמע (shama), hear and respond. Exodus states the responsive possibility; Jeremiah names what unfolds when that response is absent.
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