What Does Jeremiah 7:23 Mean?
But this word I commanded them, saying, Hear and respond to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in every way that I have commanded you, so that it may be good for 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
But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.THE KEY
Here, belonging is lived as a single movement: the voice is heard responsively, the response becomes a path, and that path is named as good for you.
THE MEANING
God’s voice reaches your hearing and takes shape in the way you walk. Your belonging is reciprocal, and the path is directed toward what is good for you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that hearing is complete while the path remains untouched: here, hearing takes shape in walking.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעוּ
shim'u
GROWS FROM
שמע
shama
Hear, listen, attend; in this command, hear and respond.
“Hear and respond to my voice” in this verse is shim'u. The verse’s word for obey is built on hearing. The response is not an extra step detached from listening: the next phrase gives it form as a way to walk.
ALSO GROWS
shemu'ah: hearing; a report or thing heard
שְׁמוּעָה
Hearing can carry what has been received onward, suggesting that the voice is not merely noticed but answered.
shomea: one who hears; a hearer
שֹׁמֵעַ
The hearer is named by the same root, keeping attention to the voice at the center of the response.
וַהֲלַכְתֶּם
va-halakhtem
GROWS FROM
הלך
halakh
Walk, go, move along a way.
The verse gives hearing a shape in motion: the voice is followed through a way of life. English ‘walk’ preserves that image, where assent alone would leave the movement hidden.
ALSO GROWS
holekh: one who walks or goes
הוֹלֵךְ
The same root names the person in motion, tying the command to a lived direction.
halikhah: walking; a journey
הֲלִיכָה
The journey-word keeps the path open as something traversed, not merely known.
יִיטַב
yitav
GROWS FROM
יטב
y-t-b
Be good, go well, or do good.
The verse links the walked way with good coming to be for you. Its wording holds well-being close to the path, rather than leaving it as a distant abstraction.
ALSO GROWS
heytiv: did good; made good
הֵיטִיב
This form of the root carries goodness as something enacted, echoing the verse’s movement from hearing into walking.
meitiv: one who does good; doing good
מֵיטִיב
The root can describe goodness in action, giving the verse’s promised good a concrete, lived quality.
THE PATTERN
A received voice becomes a lived path, and that path orders life toward good.
You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live, and so that it may go well with you, and so that you may lengthen your days in the land you shall take hold of.Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.THE THREAD
Oh that my people would hear and respond to me, and Israel would walk in my ways!This verse places the same two roots side by side: שמע (shama, hear and respond) and הלך (halakh, walk or go). It makes explicit the movement compressed in Jeremiah: hearing God’s voice and walking God’s way form one continuous response.
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