What Does Jeremiah 35:10 Mean in the King James?
But we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.
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 word translated “obeyed” carries hearing that responds, so listening and doing belong to one lived pattern.
THE MEANING
Your commitments take shape in daily life: what you hear and what you do are bound together. Listening becomes visible in the pattern you inhabit, down to where and how you dwell. Received instruction can become a way of living.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This loosens the belief that hearing counts as a response even when nothing in life changes.
THE ROOT
וַנִּשְׁמַע
vannishmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, and respond.
“obeyed” in this verse is vannishmaʿ. The Hebrew word carries hearing that answers with a response. Paired with “done,” it shows listening arriving in action, rather than remaining a sound that leaves life untouched.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear; hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This is the familiar command to hear, from the same root as the word translated “obeyed” here.
shomea: One who hears; a listener.
שֹׁמֵעַ
The listener and the act of hearing share a root, joining a person’s receptive posture to the response that follows.
וַנֵּשֵׁב
vaneshev
GROWS FROM
ישב
Sit, remain, settle, dwell.
The root can mean both sitting and dwelling, giving “dwelt” the sense of an inhabited posture as well as a place to stay. In this verse, dwelling, hearing, and doing together make instruction visible in an ongoing way of life.
ALSO GROWS
yoshēv: One who sits or dwells.
יֹשֵׁב
The word for a dweller comes from the same root as “we dwelt,” linking a person’s settled position to the household’s practice.
moshav: Dwelling place, seat, or settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
This branch names a place of dwelling, extending the root’s sense from remaining to the place where life is lived.
יְהוֹנָדָב
Yehonadav
GROWS FROM
נדב
Be willing; offer freely.
“Jonadab” in this verse is Yehonadav. Yehonadav joins Yeho-, a form of the divine name, with nadav, the language of willingness and free offering; the name is often understood as “YHWH is generous.” Its sense of willing generosity sits beside the verse’s picture of a father’s instruction received and practiced by his household.
ALSO GROWS
nedavah: A freewill offering.
נְדָבָה
This branch carries the root’s sense of something offered willingly, adding a note of willing response to the name Jonadab.
nadiv: Willing, generous, or noble.
נָדִיב
The name’s root also describes a willing or generous person, giving Jonadab’s name a character beyond a label.
THE PATTERN
Hearing becomes complete in Scripture as a response that takes visible form.
Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.The Hebrew שמע (shamaʿ, hear and respond) underlies “obey his voice,” while ישב (yashav, dwell or remain) underlies “dwell in the land.” Deuteronomy holds hearing, cleaving, life, and dwelling together, opening the verse’s “dwelt” and “done” as parts of one inhabited response.
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