What Does Jeremiah 26:10 Mean in the King James?
When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king’s house unto the house of the LORD, and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the LORD’s house.
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
Hearing becomes visible as a change in where authority sits: the princes leave the king’s house for the LORD’s gate.
THE MEANING
What reaches the ears of authority moves the princes from the king’s house to the LORD’s house. They sit at the opening of a new gate, giving their hearing a visible place at a shared threshold. The verse speaks now wherever listening changes where a matter can be heard in the open.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hearing is only inward or private: here, hearing changes where authority takes its seat.
THE ROOT
שָׁמְעוּ
shame'u
GROWS FROM
שמע
shamaʿ
Hear, listen, heed.
“heard” in this verse is shame'u. In Hebrew, שָׁמַע (shamaʿ, hear) can carry the sense of listening that heeds, not sound merely received. The verse makes that movement visible: those who hear these things leave the king’s house and take their seats at the LORD’s gate.
ALSO GROWS
shemuah: Report, tidings.
שְׁמוּעָה
What is heard can become a report that travels into a gathering; these heard words summon the princes.
shomea: One who hears; a listener.
שֹׁמֵעַ
This form names the hearer, while the verse shows the hearers acting after they receive the words.
פֶּתַח
petach
GROWS FROM
פתח
pataḥ
Open; open up.
The word rendered “entry” is itself an opening. The princes sit at the opening of the gate, so the scene places their hearing at a point of passage rather than inside the king’s house.
ALSO GROWS
pataḥ: To open.
פָּתַח
The verb makes the opening in “entry” audible: the place is defined by passage becoming possible.
maphteaḥ: Key; something that opens.
מַפְתֵּחַ
The same root appears in the word for a key, keeping the idea of opening inside the verse’s threshold.
שַׁעַר
sha'ar
GROWS FROM
שער
sha'ar
Gate; an entrance through a boundary.
“gate” in this verse is sha'ar. The same consonants name the passage and its keeper, so the threshold is both an opening and a watched point of access. Here, the rulers sit at that boundary instead of remaining in the king’s house, putting their hearing where it can be seen.
ALSO GROWS
she'arim: Gates.
שְׁעָרִים
The plural form carries the same threshold into the entrances of a city or house.
sho'er: Gatekeeper; porter.
שׁוֹעֵר
This word-family also names the one who watches the gate, revealing the threshold as a point of passage and access.
THE PATTERN
When words reach authority, they draw a matter into a shared place of hearing and decision.
Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place;And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.THE THREAD
Then went Boaz up to the gate, and sat him down there: and, behold, the kinsman of whom Boaz spake came by; unto whom he said, Ho, such a one! turn aside, sit down here. And he turned aside, and sat down.Both verses use שַׁעַר (sha’ar, gate) and place a matter at the threshold. In Jeremiah, the princes sit there after hearing the words; in Ruth, Boaz sits there and calls another person into a public matter. The shared root opens the gate as a place where what has been heard or held can be brought into view.
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