What Does Deuteronomy 1:18 Mean?
And I commanded you at that time all the words that you should do.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls the “things” you do devarim, the same word used for “words”, so instruction and action share one name.
THE MEANING
The verse holds instruction and action together: what reaches you as a word also reaches into the things you do. Your actions are one place those words take shape.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that instruction belongs only in what you hear or understand; here its words extend into what you do.
THE ROOT
דְּבָרִים
devarim
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; as a noun, a word, matter, or thing.
English renders devarim as “things,” while its root also names words and speaking. The verse holds the spoken instruction and the matters carried out within one family of language.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word; matter; thing.
דָּבָר
This singular form shows how one Hebrew word can name both what is spoken and what is at hand to be done.
dibbēr: He spoke; spoke.
דִּבֵּר
This verb from the same root links the “things” in the verse to speech: the instruction is word-shaped, even where English says “things.”
THE PATTERN
Words received as instruction become visible in what is done.
But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon the rock.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.The word translated “things” in Deuteronomy 1:18 belongs to the same root family as the word translated “word” here. This verse brings that link into view: the word is near, in mouth and heart, and its nearness reaches into doing.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us