What Does Jeremiah 19:15 Mean in the King James?
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.
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 announced calamity follows a refusal that has become bodily posture: the neck is hardened precisely so the words will not be heard.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks into the present wherever a hardened posture becomes a way of refusing what is said. It does not soften the consequence: the LORD says he will bring calamity upon the city and all its towns because its people harden themselves so they will not hear his words.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that the announced disaster is disconnected from prior refusal: the passage directly links the city’s hardened refusal to hear with the calamity the LORD brings.
THE ROOT
קָשׁוּ
qashu
GROWS FROM
ק־שׁ־ה
q-sh-h
To be hard, stiff, severe, or difficult.
“hardened” in this verse is qashu. The Hebrew verb makes the neck’s hardness an active posture of resistance. The verse connects that posture directly to refusing to hear and respond to the LORD’s words.
ALSO GROWS
qasheh: Hard, stiff, or difficult.
קָשֶׁה
The adjective appears in the biblical description “stiffnecked,” showing the same hardness joined to the neck.
qeshi: Hardness or stubbornness.
קְשִׁי
This noun names the settled resistance that the verse shows taking shape in the body’s posture.
לִשְׁמֹעַ
lishmoa
GROWS FROM
שׁ־מ־ע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, listen, and respond.
“hear” in this verse is lishmoa. The verse describes more than sound failing to reach the ear: the people harden themselves so they will not receive and respond to the words. The root’s range makes the closed ear and the refused response part of the same action.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This familiar form carries the responsive sense that the people are deliberately shutting out here.
shemuah: A report or message heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The branch joins hearing with the message received, echoing the words the city refuses.
הָרָעָה
hara'ah
GROWS FROM
ר־ע־ע
r-ʿ-ʿ
To be bad or harmful; the noun can mean evil, harm, or calamity.
“evil” in this verse is hara'ah. Here the word names the calamity the LORD says he will bring upon the city; the verse does not soften that threat. The verb “bring upon” makes the destructive consequence explicit.
ALSO GROWS
ra: Bad or evil.
רַע
The adjective shares the root’s range of what is harmful or bad.
ra'ah: Harm, distress, or calamity.
רָעָה
This noun gives the announced consequence its force as disaster falling upon the city.
THE PATTERN
Refusal to receive the word becomes embodied hardness, and the text ties that refusal to consequence.
Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.THE THREAD
And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:The same Hebrew pairing, קָשֶׁה (qasheh, hard or stiff) with עֹרֶף (oreph, neck or nape), appears here as “stiffnecked.” Jeremiah traces what that posture does: it closes hearing and stands beside the announced calamity.
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