What Does Jeremiah 6:18 Mean in the King James?
Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.
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 nations are called to hear as witnesses to what is already at work among the people.
THE MEANING
This verse calls you into a public hearing: listen, then recognize what is already among the people. Its force is exposure, the condition within the community is made known beyond it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a people’s conduct can remain hidden from those beyond it: the nations themselves are summoned to witness what is among them.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעוּ
shimʿu
GROWS FROM
שמע
shamaʿ
To hear, listen, and heed.
“hear” in this verse is shimʿu. The plural command makes hearing a shared response, not merely sound reaching one person’s ear. The same root names both listening and a report, what is heard and carried onward, so the nations become witnesses to what is being made known.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear; listen and respond.
שְׁמַע
The same call to hear opens Deuteronomy’s central confession, showing that hearing can be a responsive act.
shemuʿah: A report; what is heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch connects listening with testimony that travels, fitting the call for the nations to hear what is among the people.
דְּעִי
deʿi
GROWS FROM
ידע
yadaʿ
To know, recognize, or perceive.
“know” in this verse is deʿi. The verse pairs hearing with recognition: receiving the words is not the end of the summons. The call asks the congregation to perceive what is actually present among the people, not merely to collect information about them.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge, understanding, or discernment.
דַּעַת
This branch shows the movement from hearing toward grasping what the situation means.
yodeaʿ: One who knows or recognizes.
יֹדֵעַ
This form points to a knower who can identify what is present, matching the verse’s call to recognize what is among them.
THE PATTERN
A summons to hear turns what is hidden or ignored within a people into public witness.
Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them.Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.THE THREAD
Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.The root שמע (shamaʿ, hear and heed) appears in this verse’s summons and in the people’s failure to hearken. The next verse reveals why the nations are called to hear: the rejected words have borne fruit among the people.
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