Jeremiah 6:10

To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
speak	אֲדַבְּרָ֤ה 'a.da.be.Rah	H1696	perhaps properly · verb, piel infinitive construct, 1st person common singular
warning	וְאָעִ֙ידָה֙ ve.'a.'I.dah	H5749	to duplicate or repeat · conjunction + verb, hiphil infinitive construct, 1st person common singular
hear	וְיִשְׁמָ֔עוּ ve.yish.Ma.'u	H8085	to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine plural
ear	אָזְנָ֔ם 'a.ze.Nam	H241	broadness. i.e. (concrete) the ear (from its form in ma… · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
uncircumcised	עֲרֵלָ֣ה 'a.re.Lah	H6189	uncircumcised (i.e. still having the prepuce uncurtaile… · adjective, feminine singular absolute
cannot	יוּכְל֖וּ yu.khe.Lu	H3201	to be able · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
hearken	לְהַקְשִׁ֑יב le.hak.Shiv	H7181	to prick up the ears · preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct
word	דְבַר de.var-	H1697	a word · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD	יְהוָ֗ה Yah.weh	H3068	Jehovah · proper noun, a title
reproach	לְחֶרְפָּ֖ה le.cher.Pah	H2781	contumely · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
delight	יַחְפְּצוּ yach.pe.tzu-	H2654	properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Jeremiah 7:26 Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.
John 7:7 The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.
Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he c…
Exodus 6:12 And Moses spake before the LORD, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am o…
Isaiah 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
Deuteronomy 29:4 Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.
2 Chronicles 36:15-16 And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, a…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 6:9-17

The heads of this paragraph are the very same with those of the last; for precept must be upon precept and line upon line. I. The ruin of Judah and Jerusalem is here threatened. We had before the haste which the Chaldea army made to the war (Jer 6:4, Jer 6:5); now here we have the havoc made by the war. How lamentable are the desolations here described! The enemy shall so long quarter among them, and be so insatiable in their thirst after blood and treasure, that they shall seize all they can meet with, and what escapes them at one time shall fall into their hands another (Jer 6:9): They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine; as the grape-gatherer, who is resolved to leave n…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jeremiah 6:10

ear is uncircumcised--closed against the precepts of God by the foreskin of carnality (Lev 26:41; Eze 44:7; Act 7:51). word . . . reproach-- (Jer 20:8).

John Gill on Jeremiah 6:10

To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear?.... These are the words of the prophet, despairing of any success by his ministry; suggesting that the people were so universally depraved, that there were none that would hear him; that speaking to them was only beating the air, and that all expostulations, warnings, remonstrances, and testimonies, would signify nothing: behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken; their ears were stopped with the filth of sin naturally, and they wilfully stopped their ears like the adder; and so being unsanctified, they neither could hear nor desired to hear the word of the Lord, as to understand it; see Acts 7:51, behold, the w…

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John Calvin on Jeremiah 6:10

Jeremiah 6:10 10. To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it. 10. Ad quem loquar? et quem contestabor ut audiant? Ecce incircumcisa auris eorum, et non poterunt attendere; ecce verbum Jehovae fuit illis opprobrio? non acquieverunt in eo (hoc est, non oblectati sunt; phphch significat capere oblectationem, Ils n'y ont prins nul plaisir.) The Prophet here shews there was no reason for him to labor any longer in trying to reform the people, for he spoke to the deaf. He had said before, according to our lecture yesterday, that God was…

The Church Fathers

The prophet Jeremiah also blamed the Jewish multitudes with their rulers because of their excessive arrogance, saying, "To whom shall I speak and testify, and he will hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hear. Behold, the Word of the Lord has become to them a derision. They will not hear it." And in another place he spoke of Jerusalem: "We healed Babel, and she was not healed. Let us leave her and depart every one to his land, because her judgment has reached to the heavens."
— Cyril of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 134

(Verse 10.) To whom shall I speak, and whom shall I answer, that he may hear? Behold, their (or your) ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hear. They cannot hear because they have refused to circumcise their ears; yet the impossibility that comes from contempt and unbelief is not without punishment. Therefore, if anyone does not receive the words of God, neither does he have the understanding of His commandments, he has uncircumcised ears. It should also be noted that circumcision is called by three names in the Scriptures: in the foreskin, in the heart, and in the ears. Hence the Lord says: He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Matthew 11:15). Therefore, by our own will, we do not accept the word of God; and thus it becomes a reproach to us, that what was given to us for salvation, is turned by our fault into punishment.
— Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Circumcision — Cutting around. This rite, practised before, as some think, by divers races, was appointed by God to be the special badge of his chosen people, an abiding sign of their consecration to him. It was…
Circumcision · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Delighting In God · Hypocrites: In heart despise — Hypocrites: In heart despise
Ear, The · Of the wicked: Uncircumcised — Of the wicked: Uncircumcised
Impenitence · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Jeremiah 6:10

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 6:9-17

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jeremiah 6:10

John Gill on Jeremiah 6:10

John Calvin on Jeremiah 6:10

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Jeremiah 6:10

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 6:9-17

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jeremiah 6:10

John Gill on Jeremiah 6:10

John Calvin on Jeremiah 6:10

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Keil & Delitzsch on Jeremiah 6:9-15

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Jeremiah 6:10-15

Rashi on Jeremiah 6:10