What Does Hebrews 3:16 Mean in the King James?
For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The exit from constriction and the heart’s response to what it hears are two different movements.
THE MEANING
You can hear a word and still meet it with bitter resistance. An outward passage out of constriction does not, by itself, show that the heart has received what it hears.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This verse undoes the belief that an outward escape or a moment of hearing proves the heart is already receptive.
THE ROOT
παρεπίκραναν
parepikranan
GROWS FROM
πικραίνω
pikrainō
To make bitter; in the compound παραπικραίνω (parapikrainō), to embitter or provoke.
“provoked” in this verse is parepikranan. The verb carries bitterness inside the act of provoking: resistance is a response that sours against what has been heard. Hebrews uses the same word family for “provocation” when it speaks of a hardened heart.
ALSO GROWS
pikrainō: To make bitter.
πικραίνω
This is the core verb in the compound, revealing the bittering quality beneath “provoked.”
pikria: Bitterness.
πικρία
The related noun shows the inner quality named by the verb’s root.
parapikrasmos: Provocation, rebellion.
παραπικρασμός
Hebrews 3:8 uses this related noun for the wilderness provocation, linking the act to a hardened response.
ἀκούσαντες
akousantes
GROWS FROM
ἀκούω
akouō
To hear or listen.
“heard” in this verse is akousantes. The verse places hearing before provocation, but hearing itself does not guarantee a receptive answer. The related word ὑπακοή (hypakoē, obedience) shows a branch English can hide: hearing can become a response, while here it is followed by resistance.
ALSO GROWS
akoē: Hearing; a report or message heard.
ἀκοή
This noun keeps the focus on reception through hearing.
hypakoē: Obedience; responsive listening.
ὑπακοή
This related word shows how hearing can grow into response, a possibility the verse sets beside resistance.
THE PATTERN
Hearing and outward escape do not, by themselves, produce a receptive response.
And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:Here “provocation” is παραπικρασμός (parapikrasmos, provocation), from the same πικραίνω (pikrainō, to make bitter) word family as “did provoke” in verse 16. The nearby link names the resistance as a hardening of the heart, while the exit from Egypt is only the outward part of the journey.
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