What Does Jeremiah 43:4 Mean?
So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the army, and all the people, did not hear and respond to the voice of the LORD, to settle in the land of Judah.
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
So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people, obeyed not the voice of the LORD, to dwell in the land of Judah.THE KEY
In Hebrew, refusing the LORD’s voice is refusing the hearing that becomes response, and the refusal shows up in where the people will dwell.
THE MEANING
The people refuse the LORD’s voice to dwell in Judah, and that refusal takes shape in their departure from the place named by the voice. The same pattern speaks now: what is not received as a response becomes visible in the direction a life takes.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that hearing is complete once words reach the ear; here, refusing to answer the voice is itself named as not hearing.
THE ROOT
שָׁמְעוּ
sham'u
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear or listen; in context, to heed and respond.
“did not hear and respond” in this verse is sham'u. The Hebrew says they did not hear the LORD’s voice. This root holds hearing and response together, showing the gap between receiving a voice as sound and letting it direct where one dwells.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear, listen, heed, respond.
שְׁמַע
It reveals that hearing in this passage reaches toward a response, rather than stopping at sound.
shemuʿah: A report or news; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch keeps the root’s link to what reaches the ear, clarifying the distinction between hearing a report and responding to a voice.
THE PATTERN
In Scripture, hearing the LORD’s voice is shown by the response it brings into a person’s life.
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.But if you say, We will not settle in this land, nor hear and respond to the voice of the LORD your God.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
But if you say, We will not settle in this land, nor hear and respond to the voice of the LORD your God.Jeremiah 42:13 pairs dwelling in the land with hearing the LORD’s voice; this verse then says the people do not hear that voice. The repeated root שמע (sh-m-ʿ), meaning hear and respond, ties the refusal to the place they choose to inhabit.
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