What Does Jeremiah 7:24 Mean?
But they did not hear and respond, nor bend their ear, but walked in their plans and in the stiffness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.
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 they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.THE KEY
The verse names the hinge: when the ear refuses a responding voice, the heart’s own counsel becomes a road that carries the walker backward.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to the moment when what reaches the ear is not welcomed into response: the heart’s own counsel then sets the path beneath the feet. Motion continues, yet the direction is backward, away from what lies before the person. The danger is not thinking; it is fixed inner counsel governing the walk without being answered by what is heard.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that movement by itself is progress: a person can keep walking and still be turned backward by the counsel they follow.
THE ROOT
שָׁמְעוּ
sham'u
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, heed, respond.
“did not hear and respond” in this verse is sham'u. Shema reaches beyond sound landing in the ear to hearing that answers. Here, refusing to hear leaves the heart’s own counsel free to govern the path.
ALSO GROWS
shama: Hear, listen, heed.
שָׁמַע
This is the hearing the verse says they refused; it includes response, not sound alone.
shemuah: A report or message that is heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The related word points to what can reach the ear and be received, making their refusal a rejection of response to what they hear.
שְׁרִירוּת
sherirut
GROWS FROM
שרר
Be firm or hard; by extension, remain stubborn or obstinate.
“stiffness” in this verse is sherirut. The word rendered “imagination” carries the sense of firmness or stubbornness. The heart’s counsel is not passing thought here; it has set into a fixed direction, and the verse names where that direction leads.
ALSO GROWS
sharir: Firm, strong.
שָׁרִיר
This related form gives a concrete sense of the firmness beneath the verse’s description of the heart’s settled direction.
sherirut: Firmness, stubbornness, obstinacy.
שְׁרִירוּת
This is the word in the verse, showing that the heart’s inner counsel is held to with stubborn resolve.
לְפָנִים
lefanīm
GROWS FROM
פנה
Turn, face, direct oneself.
“forward” in this verse is lefanīm. Lefanīm means toward the front or what lies before, from panim, “face” or “front.” The contrast is about orientation: the people keep moving, but they are turned toward what is behind rather than what is before them.
ALSO GROWS
panim: Face, front, presence.
פָּנִים
This face/front language lies beneath the verse’s word for “forward.”
lifnei: Before, in front of.
לִפְנֵי
This related form carries the same spatial orientation toward what lies ahead.
THE PATTERN
A person’s direction follows the voice they receive: refusal to hear leaves self-directed counsel free to set the path.
But my people would not hear and respond to my voice, and Israel would not have me.Your ears will hear and respond to a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," whether you turn to the right hand or to the left.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.THE THREAD
So I sent them away in the stiffness of their heart, and they walked in their own plans.The shared Hebrew verb הָלַךְ (halakh, “walk/go”) appears in both lines, and both also use forms of עֵצָה (etsah, “counsel”). Psalm 81:12 makes the inner mechanism just as visible: what the heart holds as its own counsel becomes the road the people actually walk.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us