What Does Jeremiah 9:13 Mean in the King James?
And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;
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 instruction placed before you is already a path: its direction is meant to be heard and entered.
THE MEANING
The instruction is before you as a direction, and its voice calls for hearing that answers and a path walked. This verse names the fracture when the direction remains in view but no longer shapes your movement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that receiving instruction is enough even when its voice goes unanswered and its path goes unwalked.
THE ROOT
תּוֹרָתִי
torati
GROWS FROM
ירה
y-r-h
To point out, direct, or instruct.
“law” in this verse is torati. Here, instruction has the texture of direction: it points a way. That makes the images of hearing and walking part of what the word is for, not separate ideas.
ALSO GROWS
yarah: To direct, teach, or point out.
יָרָה
It reveals instruction as guidance that indicates a way.
moreh: A teacher or one who directs.
מוֹרֶה
The teacher and the instruction share the image of pointing someone toward a way.
שָׁמְעוּ
sham'u
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, heed, and respond.
“obeyed” in this verse is sham'u. This word carries hearing into response: the voice does not merely reach the ear, it is met. Refusing to hear and failing to walk name two moments of the same break.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: To hear, heed, or respond.
שָׁמַע
The root holds listening together with the response implied by the verse’s “obeyed.”
shemuʿah: A report or tidings; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
It shows the root extending from hearing a voice to what is received and carried as a message.
הָלְכוּ
halekhu
GROWS FROM
הלך
h-l-k
To go, walk, or proceed.
“walked” in this verse is halekhu. The word for walking makes instruction a route rather than a possession. The verse joins hearing the voice to moving along the way it points out.
ALSO GROWS
halakh: To walk, go, or proceed.
הָלַךְ
It names movement along the instruction’s direction.
holekh: One who goes or walks.
הוֹלֵךְ
The same root describes a person by their movement along a way.
THE PATTERN
A word’s direction becomes present through hearing, keeping it near, and doing it.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.The “law” here is תּוֹרָה (torah, instruction), from the same root יָרָה (yarah, to direct or instruct) as the word in Jeremiah. Here the instruction stays near and becomes action; Jeremiah names the break where direction, hearing, and walking separate.
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