What Does Jeremiah 25:8 Mean in the King James?
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because ye have not heard 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
In this verse, “heard” means more than sound reaching the ear: it names whether the words are received and answered.
THE MEANING
Here, now, the fracture is not that no words are spoken, but that what is spoken is not received. The verse names the refusal to heed as a failure to hear, before it describes what follows from that refusal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hearing the words is only exposure to sound or information; here, hearing includes receiving them responsively.
THE ROOT
שְׁמַעְתֶּם
shema'tem
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear or listen; in a context of heed, to receive and respond.
The Hebrew says “you have not heard,” using the root שמע, which can carry listening that answers. The verse frames the failure as more than missing information: the words do not find a receptive response.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear and respond; the call to listen.
שְׁמַע
The same root makes hearing a responsive act, so the verse’s “not heard” points to words left unreceived.
mishma'at: Obedience or heeding.
מִשְׁמַעַת
This related form makes visible the link between hearing and heeding that English can leave implicit.
דְּבָרַי
devarai
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; speech or utterance.
“My words” is דְּבָרַי, devarai, from the root דבר. A dabar can mean a spoken word and also a matter or thing, so the words here carry substance, not sound alone.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, speech, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This range lets “my words” hold both what is spoken and the matter being addressed.
dibber: To speak or say.
דִּבֵּר
The speaking branch returns attention to an address that is present, even when it is not received.
THE PATTERN
In scripture, hearing reaches its fullness when what is heard is received as a response.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:Jeremiah’s “heard” and Deuteronomy’s opening “Hear” share the Hebrew root שמע (sh-m-ʿ), meaning to hear or listen. Deuteronomy calls for that hearing; Jeremiah names what it means when the call receives no response.
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