What Does Zechariah 1:4 Mean in the King James?
Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD.
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 call to turn is a call to return, and the verse measures hearing by whether you leave the path your deeds are tracing.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you now: a call to turn from evil ways and deeds is sounding, and hearing is shown in your response. Refusal leaves the same path and deeds in place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hearing a warning is the same as receiving it: a person can hear the words and still refuse their direction.
THE ROOT
שׁוּבוּ
shuvu
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
Return; turn back.
The Hebrew word carries the sense of returning, which English “turn” can leave hidden. The call is a movement back from the evil path and deeds named in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: Return; turning.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun preserves the same idea of turning as a return.
hēshīv: Bring back; restore.
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form shows the root can describe someone or something being brought back.
שָׁמְעוּ
shamʿu
GROWS FROM
שָׁמַע
shama
Hear; listen, with response implied when the call expects action.
“Hear” in this verse is shamʿu. The call is not only sound to receive: in this context, hearing carries the expectation of response. The next verb sharpens the refusal by naming a failure to attend as well.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This familiar imperative makes clear that hearing can include answering what is heard.
shemuʿah: Report; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch names what reaches the ear, while the verse asks whether the hearer responds.
הִקְשִׁיבוּ
hiqshivū
GROWS FROM
קָשַׁב
qashav
Attend; listen closely.
“Hearken” in this verse is hiqshivū. The verse denies two things: hearing the call and giving it attentive heed. Its paired verbs expose refusal as both not receiving the call and not attending to it.
ALSO GROWS
qeshev: Attention; attentive listening.
קֶשֶׁב
This noun makes explicit the focused attention carried by the root.
maqshiv: One who listens attentively.
מַקְשִׁיב
This participle describes the attentive listener the verse says was absent.
THE PATTERN
A call to turn becomes real in hearing that changes the direction of a person’s way.
But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.Isaiah uses the same root, שׁוּב (shuv), meaning “return,” in the word translated “return.” It opens Zechariah’s call beyond turning away from evil: the movement also turns toward the LORD.
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