What Does Jeremiah 36:10 Mean in the King James?
Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher court, at the entry of the new gate of the LORD’s house, in the ears of all the people.
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
Here, to read is to call the written word into the ears of everyone gathered.
THE MEANING
The words pass from the book through Baruch’s voice into the hearing of all the people; the word becomes a shared event. Baruch’s name, בָּרוּךְ (barukh, “blessed”), belongs to the one who voices it, while the hearing reaches beyond him to everyone gathered.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a sacred word remains contained on the page: it enters shared life when spoken into the hearing of all.
THE ROOT
וַיִּקְרָא
vayyiqra
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־א
Call, summon; here, read aloud or proclaim.
The verb translated “read” carries the motion of calling. The scroll’s words enter the room as a voiced summons, and the verse names their destination: the ears of all the people.
ALSO GROWS
miqra: Convocation; public reading.
מִקְרָא
The same root can name a gathering, linking voiced reading with people assembled to hear.
qore: One who calls or reads aloud.
קֹרֵא
The reader is the one who gives the written words a voice before the gathered people.
סֵפֶר
sefer
GROWS FROM
ס־פ־ר
Count, recount, record.
“book / scribe” in this verse is sefer. “Book” (sefer) and “scribe” (sofer) share the same root, whose meanings include counting and recounting. The verse places the record beside its recorder, then carries the words onward into public hearing.
ALSO GROWS
safar: Count, tell, recount.
סָפַר
This root’s recounting sense connects a preserved account with words that are voiced again.
sipper: He told or recounted.
סִפֵּר
This spoken branch echoes Baruch reading the recorded words aloud.
דִּבְרֵי
divrei
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
Speak; word, utterance, or matter.
The root spans the word and the act of speaking it. The “words” in the book are not inert marks here: they return to voice as Baruch reads them to the people.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, utterance, matter.
דָּבָר
The words of Jeremiah are davar: language carried forward into the hearing of others.
dibber: He spoke or uttered.
דִּבֵּר
This spoken form connects the written words with the voiced reading in the verse.
THE PATTERN
A written word becomes shared when it is voiced before a gathered people.
When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.THE THREAD
And they said unto him, Sit down now, and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears.Both verses use קרא (qara, “call” or “read aloud”), and both place the reading in people’s ears. The repeated root makes the mechanism plain: the written word reaches the gathered listeners through a voice.
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