What Does Jeremiah 7:28 Mean?
But you shall say to them, This is a nation that does not hear and respond to the voice of the LORD their God, nor take the straightening; trust has perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
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 thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.THE KEY
Truth disappears from a people’s mouths when they stop hearing and refuse correction.
THE MEANING
Here a community stops responding to the voice of the LORD their God and refuses to receive correction. Then emunah, trust, something steady enough to lean on, vanishes from its speech. The verse links an unresponsive ear with a mouth that no longer carries what is true.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
I can refuse to hear God or receive correction and still speak truthfully.
THE ROOT
אֱמוּנָה
emunah
GROWS FROM
אמן
To be firm, steady, dependable.
The word rendered “truth” is emunah: trust, something one can lean full weight on, from the root meaning firm and steady. Truth here is more than an abstract statement; it is reliability that should remain in the mouth, and the verse says it has been cut off.
ALSO GROWS
amen: Truly; so be it; a firm affirmation.
אָמֵן
The spoken affirmation marks what is firm; Jeremiah’s image of truth cut off from the mouth makes that loss tangible.
he’emin: To trust, to lean one’s weight on.
הֶאֱמִין
This branch shows trust as reliance, not merely a statement someone makes.
שָׁמְעוּ
shamu
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, attend, and respond.
“does not hear and respond to” in this verse is shamu. Under the English “obeyeth” is shamu, “they heard.” With the voice of the LORD as its object, this hearing includes response: the failure begins with a voice that finds no answer, not merely with a broken rule.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
The same root makes hearing an attentive response, the very response the verse says is absent.
shemuah: A report or message heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch links hearing with receiving a message; here the voice is not received.
מוּסָר
musar
GROWS FROM
יסר
To discipline, instruct, or correct.
“straightening” in this verse is musar. Musar carries the sense of formative instruction and discipline. The people refuse to take it in, and the verse places that refusal beside trust disappearing from their speech: what is heard and received shapes what can be said.
ALSO GROWS
yasar: To discipline, instruct, or correct.
יָסַר
The verb names the formative action that the people refuse to receive.
yissurim: Discipline or chastisement.
יִסּוּרִים
This branch shows correction as an experience that can shape a person, not just a remark to dismiss.
THE PATTERN
When a community refuses to hear and receive correction, trustworthiness drains from its speech.
But they refused to bend the ear, and turned a shoulder aside, and made their ears heavy so they would not hear and respond.Whoever loves straightening loves knowledge, but whoever hates reproof is beastlike.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
Behold, his living soul is swollen, and it is not straight within him, but the aligned one shall live by the lean of his full weight.Jeremiah says emunah, trust, has vanished from the mouth; Habakkuk says the aligned one lives by that same emunah. The shared root links trustworthy speech with the steadiness a life can lean on.
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