What Does Hosea 2:21 Mean in the King James?
And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;
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 sky and ground are participants in one answering chain, with God inside the exchange.
THE MEANING
The verse presents your world as a living chain of response: the LORD answers the heavens, and the heavens answer the earth. The layers of life are not isolated; what is received in one place becomes an answer carried onward. Divine attention appears as participation in that exchange.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that the world is mute and cut off from God’s attention: here the heavens and earth participate in an answering exchange.
THE ROOT
אֶעֱנֶה
ʾeʿĕneh
GROWS FROM
ענה
ʿayin
To answer, respond.
The Hebrew verb rendered “hear” is אֶעֱנֶה (ʾeʿĕneh, “I answer/respond”), and the same verb describes the heavens answering the earth. The English “hear” lets the receiving side register; this root also reveals a response passing through creation.
ALSO GROWS
ʿānāh: To answer, respond.
עָנָה
This verb is the seed repeated through the exchange: the LORD answers, then the heavens answer.
maʿăneh: An answer, a response.
מַעֲנֶה
The noun makes the response itself visible: what passes between the layers of this living exchange.
THE PATTERN
Life is sustained through connected responses, as one part of creation answers another.
Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.THE THREAD
And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.The word “answered” here comes from ענה (ʿ-n-h, “answer/respond”), the same root repeated in Hosea. Exodus shows people answering together; Hosea opens that same answering movement across the heavens and earth.
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