What Does Jeremiah 18:13 Mean in the King James?
Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.
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
Israel’s self-contradiction becomes so stark that the verse asks the surrounding nations whether they have ever heard its like.
THE MEANING
The image of Israel as a virgin stands beside an appalling act; the identity does not erase the deed. The question reaches beyond the familiar circle, asking whether anyone has heard of such conduct. The contradiction speaks now wherever a name and an action stand in sharp conflict.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A sacred or honored identity makes the actions carried out under it beyond scrutiny. The verse places the identity beside the deed and summons witnesses beyond it.
THE ROOT
שָׁמַע
shamaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
shamaʿ
Hear, listen, learn of.
The root also gives words for a report or tidings. The nations are asked whether they have heard of such a deed, framing Israel’s rupture as public astonishment rather than a hidden label.
ALSO GROWS
shemuʿah: Report, tidings; what is heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch makes the question about more than sound: it asks whether the deed has become a report anyone knows.
shemaʿ: Hearing, report, reputation.
שֵׁמַע
The verse asks what can be heard beyond Israel’s own circle, making the act’s public recognition part of its force.
שְׁאַלוּ
shaʾalu
GROWS FROM
שאל
shaʾal
Ask, inquire, request.
“Ask” in this verse is shaʾalu. The verse begins by directing the inquiry outward, then asks what anyone has heard. Asking and hearing together turn the surrounding nations into witnesses to the scale of the contradiction.
ALSO GROWS
sheʾelah: Question, request.
שְׁאֵלָה
This branch echoes the verse’s call to inquire beyond the people named in it.
mishʾal: Petition, desire.
מִשְׁאָל
The root can express a request as well as a question; here, the inquiry reaches outward for a measure of what has happened.
THE PATTERN
When a community’s actions contradict the identity it bears, the contradiction becomes visible beyond its own circle.
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.THE THREAD
Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:The Hebrew root שׁמע (shamaʿ, hear) appears in both verses; in Exodus, hearing is rendered as obeying, joining what is heard to a response. Jeremiah’s question about who has heard such a thing opens a further question: what does a people’s conduct answer when its identity is heard?
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