What Does Jeremiah 44:5 Mean in the King James?
But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods.
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, hearing is measured by the turn it produces: the refusal to turn is visible in the incense that keeps rising to other gods.
THE MEANING
This verse names a present refusal: the call is neither heeded nor allowed to change the course. Turning away from wickedness takes a concrete form here, incense to other gods ceases. What continues to receive the offering makes the refusal visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that hearing a warning is already the same as responding to it; here, response is a changed direction visible in practice.
THE ROOT
לָשׁוּב
lashuv
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
turn, return, go back
The English “turn” can sound like a momentary pivot, while this root also carries the sense of returning. One branch names return itself, while another names backsliding, so the verse frames refusal as staying on a course rather than making a return; here that course is made visible by the incense.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: return; turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun grows from the same root and names return as movement, clarifying that the verse’s turn is directional rather than merely mental.
meshubah: backsliding; apostasy
מְשׁוּבָה
This biblical derivative names a turning away that persists, putting the refusal to return on the same directional axis.
שָׁמְעוּ
shame’u
GROWS FROM
שׁמע
shama
hear, listen, heed; respond when the context calls for it
The verb translated “hearkened” is the same hear-and-respond root used when response matters. The refusal is described at the level of response, not simply access to sound.
ALSO GROWS
shema: hear; listen and respond
שְׁמַע
This form uses the same root and makes the joined sense of hearing and response plain.
shemuah: report; news heard
שְׁמוּעָה
This noun names a message as something heard; the verse shows that hearing a message and responding to it are distinct.
מֵרָעָתָם
mera’atham
GROWS FROM
רעע
ra’a
be bad or harmful; act badly
This root can name both badness and harm, giving “wickedness” an effect-bearing shade. The verse places that course beside an observable practice, incense offered to other gods, without reducing the harm to an abstract label.
ALSO GROWS
ra: bad; evil
רַע
This adjective shares the root and names what is wrong in the course the verse describes.
ra’ah: evil; harm; calamity
רָעָה
This related noun can name harm as well as evil, illuminating the consequences carried by the word translated “wickedness.”
THE PATTERN
Hearing becomes response when it changes the direction of a person’s conduct.
And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;Deuteronomy pairs return with obeying the voice; its Hebrew verb for “return” is שׁוּב (shuv, turn or return), the same root as Jeremiah 44:5’s “turn.” That shared root shows what is absent in Jeremiah: the response that carries hearing into a return.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us