What Does Leviticus 26:27 Mean in the King James?
And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;
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 verse names opposition as a direction: refusing to hear is already walking against the one speaking.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you where the warnings already given have not changed your response: you refuse to hear and respond to God, and keep walking in opposition. It joins hearing and conduct in one relationship, so refusal becomes a path. Its conditional warning carries into the next verse with further severity.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hearing God is merely taking in words while your course can remain opposed; the verse binds hearing to the way you walk.
THE ROOT
קְרִי
qerî
GROWS FROM
קרה
meet, encounter, befall; this is a commonly proposed link for the rare word qerî, meaning opposition or hostility
“contrary” in this verse is qerî. The rare קְרִי (qerî) is commonly linked to קָרָה (qarah), “meet” or “befall,” though the derivation is not certain. The verse’s contrast is clear: refusing to hear and respond is joined to walking in opposition, so the rupture shows itself in a lived direction.
ALSO GROWS
qārâ: to meet, encounter, or befall
קָרָה
This proposed root centers on what meets or comes upon someone, adding the shade of encounter to the rare word qerî.
miqreh: an event, occurrence, or what happens
מִקְרֶה
This related noun shows the root’s association with what happens or befalls, though it does not by itself settle the force of qerî here.
תִּשְׁמְעוּ
tishmeʿu
GROWS FROM
שמע
hear, heed, respond
“hearken” in this verse is tishmeʿu. שָׁמַע (shamaʿ) holds hearing and response together. Set beside the following walk, refusal is not merely a failure to receive sound; it is a chosen direction in relation to the voice.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: hear and respond; heed
שְׁמַע
This familiar form shows that the verse’s “hearken” carries the sense of answering what is heard.
shemuʿah: a report, news, or something heard
שְׁמוּעָה
This related noun shows the root’s range around hearing, while the verse focuses on whether hearing becomes a response.
THE PATTERN
When hearing does not become response, the path that follows exposes whether it moves with the voice or against it.
But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: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.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:The same root שׁמע (sh-m-ʿ, shamaʿ), “hear and respond,” opens this confession. Leviticus shows the fracture that follows when that hearing is refused: the path turns contrary.
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