What Does Jeremiah 11:2 Mean in the King James?
Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
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
In Hebrew, “words” and “speak” share one root, so the covenant is already moving from hearing into a voice.
THE MEANING
The covenant reaches you as something to hear and then voice among others. The verse places you inside that movement: listening receives the words, and speech carries them into shared life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that hearing is passive or complete while the words stay private: here, what is heard is immediately given voice.
THE ROOT
דִּבְרֵי
divrê
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
To speak or declare; as a noun, a word or matter.
“words / speak” in this verse is divrê. The covenant’s “words” and the command to “speak” share the same three-letter root. English makes them sound like separate things, while Hebrew joins what is received to the act of giving it voice.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, or thing
דָּבָר
This is the noun behind “words”; the covenant is heard as something carried into the lives people share.
dibber: Spoke or declared
דִּבֵּר
This verb shares the root of “words,” joining the covenant’s content to the act of speaking it.
שִׁמְעוּ
shim'u
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ע
To hear, listen, and attend; where response is implied, to hear and respond.
“Hear” in this verse is shim'u. The command is more than receiving sound: the verse shows hearing turning toward response as its words are spoken onward. The movement from listening to speech sits inside the verse itself.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: Hear, listen, or attend
שָׁמַע
This is the root of the opening command, whose response takes shape in the following command to speak.
shemuʿah: Report or news
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch names what is heard and carried onward, echoing the movement from hearing the covenant to voicing it.
THE PATTERN
A covenant word becomes communal through hearing that answers and speech that carries it onward.
And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.Exodus 24:7 places covenant reading beside the people’s answer. Its Hebrew closes with וְנִשְׁמָע (venishma, “and we will hear/respond”), from ש־מ־ע (sh-m-ʿ; shamaʿ, “hear/listen”), the root of Jeremiah’s opening command; the KJV renders it “be obedient.”
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