Bible Strands
Jeremiah 44:5
But they did not listen or incline their ears; they did not turn from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks through Jeremiah to the Jewish remnant who fled to Egypt following Jerusalem's destruction. He confronts them at a moment when they have rejected repeated prophetic warnings against idolatry and persisted in their current practices.
The words — The Hebrew לֹא שָׁמְעוּ (lo sha'meu) literally means "they did not listen," and הִטּוּ אָזְנָם (hi.tu 'a.zenam) translates to "they inclined their ear." These phrases describe a deliberate physical and auditory refusal to receive divine instruction.
The thread — This refusal to heed prophetic warnings recurs in Jeremiah 11:10, where ancestors returned to the sins of their forefathers and refused to obey God's words. It aligns with 2 Chronicles 36:16, which records how mocking messengers and despising words provoked God's wrath.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that hearing a warning does not obligate compliance, and that continued idolatry requires active abandonment. It asks readers to identify whether they are merely acknowledging divine correction or actually turning from known disobedience.
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
But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 11:10 They have returned to the sins of their forefathers who refused to obey My words. They have followed other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their fathers.
- Jeremiah 19:13 The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like that place, Topheth—all the houses on whose rooftops they burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”
- 2 Chronicles 36:16 But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.
- Psalms 81:11 But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me.
- Isaiah 48:4 For I knew that you are stubborn; your neck is iron and your forehead is bronze.
- Isaiah 48:18 If only you had paid attention to My commandments, your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like waves of the sea.
- 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 11:8 Yet they would not obey or incline their ears, but each one followed the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought on them all the curses of this covenant I had commanded them to follow but they did not keep.”
- Jeremiah 44:17 Instead, we will do everything we vowed to do: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and offer drink offerings to her, just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and good things, and we saw no disaster.
- Zechariah 7:11 But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.