Day 16 of 75 · Perception and response

Sh-M-ʿ

shmaʿ: hear

שמעו

ܫܡܰܥܘ

The feel

Shmaʿ is hearing that answers: sound enters your ear, and your will bends toward it. In the Shema, hearing and obedient relation are one act. When Yeshua calls for ears to hear, the parable has been spoken, what happens next depends on the ear.

The root family

Form	Pattern	Transliteration	Script	Standard	Qala rendering
The verb	peal (base stem)	shmaʿ	שמע ܫܡܥ	to hear	listen
Command	peal imperative, plural	šmaʿw	שמעו ܫܡܰܥܘ	hear!	Listen (Matthew 15:10)
Let-him-hear	peal imperfect	nešmaʿ	נשמע ܢܶܫܡܰܥ	let him hear	let them hear (Matthew 13:9)
Hearing ears	peal participle, feminine plural	dšāmʿān	דשמען ܕ݁ܫܳܡܥܳܢ	which hear	because they hear (Matthew 13:16)
Being heard	ethpeel participle	meštamʿin	משתמעין ܡܶܫܬ݁ܰܡܥܺܝܢ	they are heard	they'll be heard (Matthew 6:7)

Paradigm forms are a teaching scaffold from standard Aramaic grammar; corpus-attested words above are drawn from the glossary and interlinear.

The verb stems

Stem	Form	Sense	Witness
Peal	shmaʿ	hear, listen	corpus, throughout (~237×)
Ethpeel	eštmaʿ	be heard	corpus: Matthew 6:7 (meštamʿin)
Pael	—	—	not attested in this corpus
Ethpaal	—	—	not attested
Aphel	ašmaʿ	make hear, announce	standard lexicon; not cited from this corpus
Ettaphal	—	—	not attested
Shaphel	—	—	not attested

Stem table is a grammar scaffold: how Aramaic bends one root through voice and cause.

In his voice

Matthew 13:9 · interlinear

Whoever has ears, let them hear."

nešmaʿ נשמע ܢܶܫܡܰܥ , "let them hear." The root as invitation: the parable is finished, and everything now hangs on whether the ear will do its covenantal work.

Matthew 15:10 · interlinear

Then he called the crowd to him and said, "Listen, and understand.

šmaʿw שמעו ܫܡܰܥܘ , the bare plural command: "Listen!" Hearing comes first; understanding is what hearing becomes when it is allowed to finish.

Matthew 6:7 · interlinear

And when you pray, don't pile up empty words like the outsiders, who think they'll be heard for the sheer flood of them.

meštamʿin משתמעין ܡܶܫܬ݁ܰܡܥܺܝܢ , the passive stem: "be heard." The same root turned around, not our listening but our longing to be listened to, and the mistake of thinking volume earns it.

Practice

Sit somewhere ordinary. Let one sound reach you before you name it. Recall words you heard but did not follow. Say shmaʿ, then choose one response you will make today.

Say šmaʿ slowly: let the sound enter your ear and turn your whole posture toward the speaker.

Connections

Ḥ-Z-Y shmaʿ: listen

Witness note: the forms above rest on the Peshitta as the primary witness, with Palestinian Aramaic attestation marked where a Western source carries the word.

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