What Does Judges 9:7 Mean in the King James?

And when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said unto them, Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you.

Judges 9:7 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The same Hebrew root links the people’s hearing of Jotham with God’s hearing of them, turning a call to listen into a question of reciprocity.

THE MEANING

Jotham sets two acts of hearing beside each other: the people hear him, and God may hear them. For the reader now, listening becomes part of the relationship this appeal names.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It unsettles the idea that divine hearing can be invoked while the voice calling for attention is ignored; Jotham places the two acts side by side.

THE ROOT

שִׁמְעוּ

shimʿu

GROWS FROM

שׁמע

sh-m-ʿ

hear, listen, heed

“hearken / hear” in this verse is shimʿu. The Hebrew repeats the root ⁨שׁמע⁩ (sh-m-ʿ, “hear”) in Jotham’s command to the people and in his appeal that God hear them. English preserves the repetition as “hearken,” but the shared root makes the two acts part of one exchange: a voice calls to be heard, and another hearing is sought in return.

ALSO GROWS

shemaʿ: The imperative “hear” or “listen.”

שְׁמַע

It echoes Jotham’s direct call to the people: attention is the first movement in the exchange.

shomeaʿ: A person who hears or listens.

שֹׁמֵעַ

This form makes the listener visible in the root itself, bringing the people who hear Jotham into focus.

THE PATTERN

Across scripture, hearing carries a response: what is heard shapes what follows.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

Deuteronomy 6:4 · KJVThe call to hear opens a declaration that asks for more than sound alone.

And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

1 Samuel 15:22 · KJVThe repeated language of hearing and heeding ties listening to the response that follows.

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

James 1:22 · KJVThe verse makes the gap between hearing words and responding to them explicit.

THE THREAD

And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

Exodus 2:24 · KJV

The Hebrew word translated “heard” comes from the same root ⁨שׁמע⁩ (sh-m-ʿ, “hear”) that Jotham repeats. Here, God’s hearing of a cry is joined to remembering the covenant, opening Jotham’s appeal as an exchange in which hearing matters.

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