What Does Deuteronomy 10:4 Mean?
And he wrote on the tablets, according to the first writing, the ten words, which the LORD spoke to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly, and the LORD gave them to me.
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 he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the LORD spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the LORD gave them unto me.THE KEY
The “ten commandments” are literally the “ten words”: the LORD’s speech to the assembly is written down and entrusted to another pair of hands.
THE MEANING
The verse holds spoken words and written words together as one source. What reaches you in speech can also be inscribed and received; what is entrusted to one person is named within the life of an assembly.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a living word and a written word must be separate: here the same words are spoken, written, and given.
THE ROOT
עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים
aseret hadevarim
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; word, utterance, or matter.
Under “commandments” is the phrase “ten words,” and the verb translated “spake” in this same verse comes from the same root. Speech and written instruction are joined in one chain: the words spoken are the words inscribed and given.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: He spoke
דִּבֶּר
This is the verb used for what the LORD speaks in the verse, linking the spoken words to the written ones.
davar: Word; matter
דָּבָר
The singular form holds “word” and “matter” together, giving the ten words substance as well as speech.
וַיִּכְתֹּב
vayikhtov
GROWS FROM
כ־ת־ב
k-t-b
To write or inscribe.
The verb “wrote” and the phrase “first writing” grow from the same root. The verse places the act of writing beside the written record, showing the words carried forward in a durable form.
ALSO GROWS
ketav: Writing; script
כְּתָב
This noun names writing as a form that can be read and carried beyond the moment of speech.
mikhtav: Writing; written text
מִכְתָּב
This form appears in the verse’s “first writing,” linking what is written here to the act of writing.
הַקָּהָל
haqahal
GROWS FROM
ק־ה־ל
q-h-l
To gather; an assembly is a gathered people.
The root names both the act of gathering and the gathered assembly. The words are spoken to a people together, even as they are handed to one person.
ALSO GROWS
qahal: Assembly; gathered people
קָהָל
The same noun root names the collective setting in which the words are heard.
haqhel: Gather; assemble
הַקְהֵל
This verb form shows the movement into assembly: people are gathered to hear and receive together.
THE PATTERN
A spoken word becomes a written witness, then is entrusted to people who can receive it together.
And the LORD said to Moses, Write these words for yourself, for according to the mouth of these words I have cut a covenant with you and with Israel.saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, and, write what you see in a scroll, and send it to the seven assemblies in Asia, to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.For whatever was written before was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through the comfort of the writings we might hold hope.THE THREAD
And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart.“Words” here and “commandments” in Deuteronomy 10:4 share the root ד־ב־ר (d-b-r), “speak” or “word.” This verse places those words in the heart, joining outward inscription with inward receiving.
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