What Does Jeremiah 6:10 Mean?
To whom shall I speak and bear witness, that they may hear and respond? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot bend it. Behold, the word of the LORD has become to them a taunt; they have no delight in it.
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
To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.THE KEY
A word can reach you while the ear remains covered and desire stays closed.
THE MEANING
You can hear the word and still remain closed to its claim; sound alone is not the same as receiving it. Here, the word becomes a reproach, and desire for it is absent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that hearing the words means you have received them: the verse separates hearing sound from responsive attention.
THE ROOT
עֲרֵלָה
ʿărēlāh
GROWS FROM
ע־ר־ל
ʿ-r-l
The root names the state of being uncircumcised; its noun branch names the foreskin itself, the tissue removed in circumcision.
“uncircumcised” in this verse is ʿărēlāh. Jeremiah attaches this condition to an ear: the image is a covering that remains over the organ of hearing. The same root can describe lips, extending the image from blocked reception to blocked expression.
ALSO GROWS
ʿorlāh: Foreskin.
עָרְלָה
The concrete image gives force to the metaphor: the ear is described as still covered.
ʿăral səfātayim: Uncircumcised of lips.
עֲרַל שְׂפָתָיִם
The same root describes impeded speech, showing how the image can mark a barrier to expression as well as hearing.
יִשְׁמָעוּ
yishmeʿu
GROWS FROM
שׁ־מ־ע
š-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, and, where response is implied, hear and respond.
“hear and respond” in this verse is yishmeʿu. In this warning, hearing points beyond sound toward response: the verse distinguishes being reached by a word from hearkening to it. The same root also names what is heard as a report, connecting reception with the message received.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear; in a command, hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This familiar form makes the responsive sense of hearing plain.
shemuʿah: Report, tidings.
שְׁמוּעָה
A report is something heard and received; the root holds the act of hearing and the message together.
יַחְפְּצוּ
yaḥpeṣu
GROWS FROM
ח־פ־ץ
ḥ-p-ṣ
Desire, take pleasure in, or be willing.
The word translated “delight” reaches beyond pleasant feeling: it names what they want or are willing to receive. The verse places rejection alongside both the ear’s obstruction and the absence of desire.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēfeṣ: Desire, pleasure.
חֵפֶץ
This noun shows that the root describes what is wanted, not merely a passing sensation.
ḥāfēṣ: Desiring, willing.
חָפֵץ
This form makes the element of willingness explicit in the verse’s description of rejection.
THE PATTERN
A word can be present while hearing remains closed to reception and response.
Son of man, you settle in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see and do not see, and ears to hear and do not respond. For they are a rebellious house.Hard-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always fall against the Set-Apart Breath, as your fathers did, so also you.So then trust comes out of hearing, and hearing comes through the word of God.THE THREAD
So cut the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stiff-necked.Deuteronomy uses the same root as Jeremiah’s “uncircumcised” for the foreskin of the heart. Together, the verses trace the image from a covered ear to an inner barrier that keeps the word from being received.
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