What Does Jeremiah 7:2 Mean?
Stand in the gate of the house of the LORD, and call out there this word, and say, Hear and respond to the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, who enter these gates to bow down to the LORD.
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
Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.THE KEY
The gate to worship opens into hearing: the word asks for a response, not just an entrance.
THE MEANING
The word meets you at the threshold of worship with a call to hear. Your arrival and your bowing are joined to receiving what is spoken and responding to it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that arriving at the sacred place or bowing down is enough if the word is never heard.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעוּ
shim'u
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, or heed.
“Hear and respond to” in this verse is shim'u. The call is more than receiving sound: שמע carries the sense of listening and heeding. The word is proclaimed at the gate, and those entering to bow down are called to hear and answer it.
ALSO GROWS
shama: To hear, listen, or heed.
שָׁמַע
It is the verb behind the command: worship at the gate includes attentive hearing.
shemu'ah: A report or message that is heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The branch links hearing with a message received, fitting the proclaimed word that reaches those entering the gates.
לְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֹת
lehishtachavot
GROWS FROM
שחה
To bow low, bend down, or prostrate oneself.
“bow down” in this verse is lehishtachavot. Here, “worship” names a bodily lowering, not only an inward feeling. The verse places that posture beside the call to hear: the body bows while the ear receives the word.
ALSO GROWS
shachah: To bow down or prostrate oneself.
שָׁחָה
This is the root verb beneath the action translated as worship.
hishtachavah: To bow oneself down.
הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה
This related form makes the posture explicit: entering to worship means coming to bow.
THE PATTERN
The threshold of worship joins bodily approach with hearing the word.
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.Enter, let us bow down and kneel before the face of the LORD who makes us. For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you will hear and respond to his voice.At that very hour I sent to you; and you have done well in coming alongside. Now, then, we are all here before God, to hear all that has been commanded you by the Lord.THE THREAD
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.Jeremiah’s command “hear” and Deuteronomy’s opening “Hear” share the root שמע. That shared root brings the call at the temple gate into the same pattern: hearing the word is part of approaching the LORD.
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