Bible Strands
Jeremiah 32:33
They have turned their backs to Me and not their faces. Though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Jeremiah delivers God’s declaration to the people of Judah and Jerusalem during the Babylonian siege. God addresses the cumulative rebellion of kings, officials, priests, prophets, and residents who have provoked Him to anger.
The words — The phrase וַ/יִּפְנ֥וּ עֹ֖רֶף (va/i.yif.Nu 'O.ref) literally renders "and they turned a back," explicitly contrasted with פָנִ֑ים (fa.Nim), "a face." The verb וְ/לַמֵּ֤ד (ve./la.Med) means "and I taught," coupled with הַשְׁכֵּ֣ם (hash.Kem), "rising early," to denote persistent instruction.
The thread — This posture of rejection appears in Jeremiah 2:27, where the people turn their backs to God while addressing idols as parents. The pattern of unheeded teaching reappears in Jeremiah 7:13, which records God speaking repeatedly without eliciting a response.
Why it lands — The text states that repeated divine instruction failed to produce listening or discipline. It demands a clear assessment of whether a reader acknowledges their own posture toward that same instruction.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 7:13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD, and because I have spoken to you again and again but you would not listen, and I have called to you but you would not answer,
- Jeremiah 2:27 say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ They have turned their backs to Me and not their faces. Yet in the time of trouble, they say, ‘Rise up and save us!’
- Ezekiel 8:16 So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.
- 2 Chronicles 36:15 Again and again the LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them and on His dwelling place.
- Jeremiah 7:24 Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.
- Jeremiah 26:5 and if you do not listen to the words of My servants the prophets, whom I have sent you again and again even though you did not listen,
- Jeremiah 35:15 Again and again I have sent you all My servants the prophets, proclaiming: ‘Turn now, each of you, from your wicked ways, and correct your actions. Do not go after other gods to serve them. Live in the land that I have given to you and your fathers.’ But you have not inclined your ear or listened to Me.
- John 8:2 Early in the morning He went back into the temple courts. All the people came to Him, and He sat down to teach them.
- Jeremiah 18:17 I will scatter them before the enemy like the east wind. I will show them My back and not My face in the day of their calamity.”
- Jeremiah 25:3 “From the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day—twenty-three years—the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.