What Does Jeremiah 5:3 Mean?
O LORD, are not your eyes upon steadiness? You have struck them, and they have not sickened. You have spent them, yet they refused to take the straightening. They have made their faces harder than the rock. They have refused to turn back.
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
O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.THE KEY
The verse separates pain from change: being struck is not the same as receiving correction or turning.
THE MEANING
The verse places the reader beneath a gaze that looks for steadiness and faithfulness. It shows that being struck and meeting correction do not guarantee grief or change. A hardened face becomes the visible sign of refusing to turn.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that painful consequences automatically mean a person has received the lesson or changed.
THE ROOT
לֶאֱמוּנָה
le’emunah
GROWS FROM
אמן
ʾ-m-n
To be firm, steady, or dependable.
“steadiness” in this verse is le’emunah. The word rendered “truth” carries the sense of faithfulness and reliability: what holds firm under God’s gaze. The same root family appears in “Amen” and in words for someone trustworthy, giving this line the texture of steadfastness, not just factual accuracy.
ALSO GROWS
amen: Truly; firm assent, “so be it.”
אָמֵן
Its sound and sense of firmness echo the steadiness the verse says God’s eyes seek.
ne’eman: Faithful, reliable, trustworthy.
נֶאֱמָן
This branch makes the verse’s “truth” personal: it can describe a life that proves dependable.
מוּסָר
musar
GROWS FROM
יסר
y-s-r
To discipline or chasten.
“take the straightening” in this verse is musar. Musar belongs to a word family for discipline and chastisement, so correction has a formative force: it can shape the one who receives it. Here that shaping is refused; being struck does not by itself make the person receptive to instruction.
ALSO GROWS
yasar: To discipline, chasten, or correct.
יָסַר
This verb is the action behind musar, showing correction as an act that can shape someone.
yissurim: Chastisements or afflictions.
יִסּוּרִים
This related word brings discipline and suffering into the same family, while the verse shows that pain alone does not become received correction.
לָשׁוּב
lashuv
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
To turn back or return.
The verse ends with a refusal of movement: they will not turn back. English “return” can sound like simply going back to a place, while this root carries the direction of turning back toward God.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: Return or turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun gives a name to the movement the verse says they refuse.
meshubah: Backsliding or turning away.
מְשׁוּבָה
This branch shows the same root can describe a turn away, illuminating the direction of their refusal.
THE PATTERN
Pain and reproof do not force a turn; when correction is refused, resistance can harden into a settled condition.
A man often reproved who stiffens his neck is broken suddenly, and there is no healing.While it is said, Today, if you will hear and respond to his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the embittering.But according to your stiffness and a heart that will not turn, you store up the burning of anger for yourself in the day of anger and the unveiling of the aligned judgment of God.THE THREAD
Turn back, Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled in your crookedness.Both verses use שׁוּב (shuv), meaning to turn or return: Jeremiah names the refusal of that movement, while Hosea speaks the return directly. The shared root makes the unturned movement in Jeremiah visible against Hosea’s call back toward the LORD.
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