What Does Psalm 106:25 Mean?
They growled in their tents, and did not hear and respond to the voice of the LORD.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of the LORD.THE KEY
Complaint can fill the whole tent and still leave the ear closed to the voice that calls for response.
THE MEANING
Their tents hold a chorus of complaint, while the LORD’s voice goes unreceived. This verse names a present split: words can fill a person’s inner space without becoming listening or response.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief this undoes is that speaking intensely about what is wrong means the speaker is also listening for the LORD’s voice.
THE ROOT
שָׁמְעוּ
shamʿu
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, heed, respond.
“did not hear and respond” in this verse is shamʿu. The word translated “hearkened” comes from a root whose range reaches beyond sound to attentive response. The people voice their complaint, but the LORD’s voice receives no answer in their actions.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear! Listen and respond.
שְׁמַע
This imperative makes hearing a call to respond, the very response absent in the verse.
shemuʿah: Report, tidings; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch names what becomes available when a voice is received, while the LORD’s voice here remains unanswered.
shomēaʿ: One who hears or listens.
שֹׁמֵעַ
This word names the listener by an active posture, sharpening the contrast between murmuring and receiving the voice.
THE PATTERN
Hearing the divine voice is shown by a response that can redirect the listener, while self-enclosed speech can leave it unanswered.
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you will hear and respond to his voice.Your ears will hear and respond to a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," whether you turn to the right hand or to the left.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.THE THREAD
And Samuel said, Does the LORD delight in rising offerings and slaughtered offerings as much as in hearing and responding to the voice of the LORD? Behold, hearing and responding is better than a slaughtered offering; to prick the ear is better than the fat of rams.The Hebrew root שמע appears in the words translated “obeying” and “hearken,” making explicit the response Psalm 106 says is absent. Here, hearing the LORD’s voice is set beside ritual, revealing the weight of a listening response.
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