What Does Deuteronomy 1:3 Mean?
And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that the LORD had commanded him for them.
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 it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them;THE KEY
The Hebrew root behind “spake” also gives the word “word”: instruction becomes audible through a human voice.
THE MEANING
This verse places you among a people hearing instruction that is first given and then spoken through a human voice. Moses carries what the LORD gives him into a public word, “according unto all”, speech accountable to its source. The precise date marks this utterance as a threshold, not background noise.
THE ROOT
דִּבֶּר
dibber
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; the related noun carries the meanings word, matter, or affair.
The verb translated “spake” belongs to the same root as דָּבָר (dābār), “word” or “matter.” The verse presents what the LORD gives as something carried into audible form: the word given becomes the word Moses speaks to the people.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, or affair.
דָּבָר
The spoken word and the thing said share a root, joining the instruction Moses receives to the speech he delivers.
medabber: Speaking; one who speaks.
מְדַבֵּר
This form makes the speaker part of the same root-family as the word being spoken.
מֹשֶׁה
Mōsheh
GROWS FROM
משׁה
m-sh-h
To draw out, especially from water; the name-story in Exodus 2:10 connects Moses with being drawn out.
Exodus 2:10 gives Moses a name-story of being drawn out of the water. Here, the one drawn out becomes a voice through which what is given moves outward to a people.
ALSO GROWS
māshāh: To draw out or pull out.
מָשָׁה
Exodus 2:10 links this verb with Moses being drawn out of the water.
Mōsheh: Moses; connected in Exodus 2:10 with being drawn out.
מֹשֶׁה
The name’s wordplay adds a layer to his role here: the one drawn out now carries instruction to others.
THE PATTERN
Instruction reaches a people through a human voice carrying what has been given.
And now go, and I will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what you will speak.Then the LORD stretched out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, Look, I have set my words in your mouth.For I have not spoken from myself, but the Father who sent me has given me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.THE THREAD
I raise up for them a prophet from among their brothers, like you, and I set my words in his mouth, and he speaks to them all that I command him.In Hebrew, “my words” (דְּבָרַי, devarai) and “he shall speak” (יְדַבֵּר, yedabber) grow from דבר (d-b-r), the same root as “spake” here. This verse makes explicit the movement Deuteronomy 1:3 compresses: given words enter a mouth as speech and reach the people.
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