not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you.
Parallel translations
- WEB not to many peoples of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words you can not understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.
- KJV Not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee.
- BSB not to the many peoples of unfamiliar speech and difficult language whose words you cannot understand. Surely if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you.
- NASB nor to many peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to the people who understand you;
- NLT No, I am not sending you to people with strange and difficult speech. If I did, they would listen!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Even foreign nations would have listened, God says, more readily than Israel. Israel's resistance is especially culpable.
Overview
God notes that pagan peoples might have heeded the message, intensifying Israel's guilt. Those with the most privilege prove the most resistant. This anticipates Jesus' words that pagan cities would have repented at signs Israel rejected (Matthew 11:21). It warns that nearness to God's truth brings greater accountability, not automatic acceptance.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Matt 11:20–24Then he began to denounce the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done, because they didn’t repent.
- Rom 9:30–33What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith;
- Luke 11:30–32For even as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will also the Son of Man be to this generation.
- Matt 12:41–42The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, someone greater than Jonah is here.
- Jonah 3:5–10The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least.
- Acts 27:28They took soundings, and found twenty fathoms. After a little while, they took soundings again, and found fifteen fathoms.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.