Jeremiah 6:10 describes a people who have stopped listening to God. The prophet asks whom he could possibly warn, since their hearing is closed and they take no pleasure in the word of the LORD. The verse is spoken by Jeremiah, the prophet who ministered in Jerusalem as Judah approached its collapse before the Babylonian invasion.
To whom should I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can’t listen. Behold, the LORD’s word has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it.
Jeremiah 6:10 (WEB)
What Jeremiah 6:10 Means
The verse opens with a question: “To whom should I speak and testify, that they may hear?” Jeremiah is not asking for a practical list of names. He is expressing a kind of exhausted grief, as though he has no audience left who would receive the message. The word “testify” carries the sense of solemnly bearing witness, the way a witness in court tells what they have seen.
The description of “uncircumcised” ears is a striking image. Circumcision was the sign of belonging to God’s covenant people, so an uncircumcised ear suggests a heart and hearing that have not been brought into covenant faithfulness. The people are not unable to make sound; they are unwilling to take in what God says. The verse also says the word of the LORD has become “a reproach” to them, meaning they mock or despise it, and that they have “no delight” in it.
What the verse does not promise is that the people will suddenly listen. It describes the condition of a community that has grown deaf to God, and it reveals the sorrow of the messenger. It is a diagnosis, not a happy ending, and it should be read as a warning that hardness of heart has consequences.
The Context of Jeremiah 6:10
The book of Jeremiah is traditionally attributed to the prophet himself, who was called to speak God’s word to Judah in the decades before Jerusalem fell in 586 BC. His hearers were the kings, priests, and ordinary people of Jerusalem and the surrounding towns, many of whom trusted in the temple and in their own prosperity while ignoring the moral and religious decline around them.
The verses just before this one, in Jeremiah 6:7 and 6:8, describe the city’s wickedness as a spring that constantly produces violence and destruction, and they call Jerusalem to be instructed before disaster falls. The verses after it, Jeremiah 6:11 through 6:13, speak of God’s wrath being poured out and of greed and deceit running from the least to the greatest. Read in this setting, verse 10 is the emotional center of the warning: the prophet has pleaded, and now he admits that the people will not hear.
Key Phrases in Jeremiah 6:10
Matthew 13:15
For this people’s heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, they have closed their eyes; or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and would turn again; and I would heal them.’
(WEB)
Jesus quotes the same kind of hardened hearing from Isaiah, showing that the closing of ears and eyes is a recurring human problem. Reading it alongside Jeremiah 6:10 helps you see that dullness of hearing is not a new failing but an old pattern that God addresses again and again.
Hebrews 3:15
While it is said, “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.”
(WEB)
This verse urges believers not to harden their hearts when they hear God’s voice. It pairs naturally with Jeremiah 6:10 by turning the warning into an invitation: today is the time to listen, before the heart grows so hard that the word no longer reaches it.
A Short Prayer From Jeremiah 6:10
Lord, you know how hard it is to speak truth to people who do not want to hear it, and you know the weight that Jeremiah carried. I confess the times my own ears have grown dull and my heart has felt indifferent to your word. Soften what has hardened in me, and give me a genuine delight in your truth. Where I feel weary of those I love, meet me with your patience and remind me that you are still speaking. Open my heart to listen today. Amen.
