What Does Jeremiah 42:21 Mean in the King James?
And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you.
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
A message can be clearly declared and still remain unheard when hearing never becomes response.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a sharp distinction between hearing words and receiving their direction. The message reaches the reader, but hearing remains incomplete when it does not become response. What is sent carries a purpose that mere exposure does not fulfill.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hearing a message means you have already responded to it.
THE ROOT
שָׁמַעְתֶּם
shemaʿtem
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, listen, heed, or respond.
The word translated “obeyed” is rooted in hearing: the verse describes a failure of responsive listening, not a lack of sound or information. Hebrew holds hearing and response together, showing why a message can be declared yet remain unreceived.
ALSO GROWS
shemuʿah: A report or tidings; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
A report can reach the ear, but the verse’s form of hearing goes further: it answers what has been heard.
shemaʿ: Hear; listen and respond.
שְׁמַע
This form makes the passage’s contrast visible: the words are present, while responsive hearing is absent.
שָׁלַחְתִּי
shalachti
GROWS FROM
שלח
sh-l-ḥ
To send forth, release, or let go.
The message is not presented as detached information; it is something sent with a purpose. The root’s sense of sending forth makes the gap plain: what is released toward the reader has not yet been received as a response.
ALSO GROWS
shaluach: Sent; one who has been sent.
שָׁלוּחַ
The messenger carries a word outward, but the verse distinguishes the act of sending from the hearer’s response.
shilluach: Sending away or release.
שִׁלּוּחַ
The root carries movement outward, echoing the message that has been sent to reach its hearers.
THE PATTERN
A word that is truly heard moves from sound into a changed direction.
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.My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: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.“Obey” in both verses comes from שמע (shamaʿ), hear and respond. Deuteronomy connects that responsive hearing with cleaving and life, opening the weight of what Jeremiah names as absent.
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