Bible Strands
Jeremiah 5:21
“Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The LORD speaks through Jeremiah to the house of Jacob and Judah, bracketed by a command to declare (v. 20) and a challenge about not fearing God (v. 22).
The words — The BSB's "senseless" renders וְאֵין לֵב (wə'ēn lēḇ), literally "and there is no heart," which is a sharper diagnosis than the English suggests. The people are not merely foolish; they are described as lacking the organ of understanding altogether.
The thread — The "eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear" formula recurs in Isaiah 6:9, Ezekiel 12:2, and Acts 28:26, where it marks a hardened audience rather than a simple lack of information.
Why it lands — The verse treats perception as a moral failure, not an intellectual one: the problem is not that the message is unclear but that the hearer has stopped being a hearer.
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
Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 12:2 “Son of man, you are living in a rebellious house. They have eyes to see but do not see, and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious house.
- Acts 28:26 ‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
- Isaiah 6:9 And He replied: “Go and tell this people, ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
- Romans 11:8 as it is written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear, to this very day.”
- John 12:40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they cannot see with their eyes, and understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.”
- Jeremiah 4:22 “For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”
- Matthew 13:13 This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’
- Mark 8:18 ‘Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear?’ And do you not remember?
- Psalms 94:8 Take notice, O senseless among the people! O fools, when will you be wise?
- Jeremiah 8:7 Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons. The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush keep their time of migration, but My people do not know the requirements of the LORD.