What Does Jeremiah 34:14 Mean in the King James?
At the end of seven years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear.
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 verse uses the same word for “let go” twice, then exposes refusal to release as refusal to hear and respond.
THE MEANING
A person held in service is sent out free after six years, in the seventh year; the verse sets a limit on another person’s claim. It then names the failure plainly: the word is not heard, and the ear is not turned toward it. The verse speaks now wherever power over another’s labor is treated as permission to hold them without end.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the claim that a person’s sale or service makes them yours without limit: the verse sets a boundary and names release as owed. It also rejects the idea that hearing a command counts when no response follows.
THE ROOT
תְּשַׁלְּחוּ
teshallechu
GROWS FROM
שלח
send forth, release, let go
“let ye go / let him go free” in this verse is teshallechu. The command names release as sending someone out from your claim, not merely easing their treatment while they remain under it. The same root appears twice, first for the community’s duty, then for the master’s act, before the verse exposes refusal as refusal to hear and respond.
ALSO GROWS
shaliach: one sent; a messenger
שָׁלִיחַ
The messenger is defined by being sent forth, as the servant here is to be sent out from another’s control.
Shiloach: sent; the name of the waters of Shiloah
שִׁלֹחַ
The name preserves the idea of something sent onward, echoing the verse’s release as a sending out.
וְלֹא שָׁמְעוּ
velo shame'u
GROWS FROM
שמע
hear, listen, respond
“hearkened not” in this verse is velo shame'u. Here, hearing is not mere reception of sound: it is the response the command calls for. The refusal to hear sits beside the refusal to incline the ear, joining release in action with hearing that takes effect.
ALSO GROWS
shema: hear; hear and respond
שְׁמַע
It makes clear why “hearkened not” names a failure to answer the call to release.
shemu'ah: a report; something heard
שְׁמוּעָה
A report can reach the ear without being answered; the verse points to that gap between hearing words and responding to them.
THE PATTERN
Release becomes real when a person held in service is sent out from another’s claim.
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,THE THREAD
And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.Deuteronomy uses the same Hebrew root שָׁלַח (shalach, send forth and release) for “let him go free.” It makes Jeremiah’s repeated wording concrete: release is the act of sending a bound person out from one’s control.
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