What Does Zechariah 7:13 Mean in the King James?
Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts:
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 refusal to hear another’s cry becomes the condition of one’s own cry.
THE MEANING
The verse describes a relationship in which refused cries are answered with refusal: the people who would not hear call out and find themselves unheard. It presents the LORD’s nonresponse as deliberate and reciprocal, not as an inability to hear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that I can keep closing myself to another’s plea while remaining certain my own call will be answered is undone here.
THE ROOT
שָׁמְעוּ
shame'u
GROWS FROM
שמע
shama
Hear, listen, heed, respond.
English can make hearing sound like a sensory act; שָׁמַע (shama, hear, listen, respond) can carry listening through to response. The same root governs both refusals here: the people do not heed the cry, and then their own cry goes unheeded.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear; listen and respond.
שְׁמַע
The familiar imperative carries the same movement from receiving words to heeding them, which makes the refusal in this verse more than simply not noticing.
shemuah: Report or news; what is heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
Even a report bears the same root: the language links receiving what is said with what happens after it is heard.
קָרָא
qara
GROWS FROM
קרא
qara
Call, cry out, summon, proclaim.
“cried” in this verse is qara. The cries in the verse are calls directed toward someone who could answer. The same call first meets closed ears, then returns from the callers as an appeal they themselves cannot get answered.
ALSO GROWS
miqra: Convocation or assembly; a gathering called together.
מִקְרָא
This branch shows how a call can summon others into response, giving the cry here its relational force.
qeri'ah: Calling or reading aloud.
קְרִיאָה
A cry is a voice sent outward to be received; the verse turns on whether that call is answered.
THE PATTERN
A cry denied can return as the measure by which the denier’s own cry is received.
Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.THE THREAD
If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;Exodus 22:23 uses the same hearing root in the LORD’s emphatic promise to hear the afflicted person’s cry. Beside Zechariah, the shared root reveals hearing as a response: one cry meets refusal, while the other is met with a promise to answer.
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