What Does Deuteronomy 18:17 Mean?
And the LORD said to me, They have spoken well what they spoke.
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 the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.THE KEY
The words are called good even though they name a limit rather than mastery.
THE MEANING
The LORD calls these words well spoken, so a limit you name honestly can be good speech before it is resolved. What you can truthfully name does not have to be concealed to be worthy of hearing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that naming what you cannot bear makes your words faithless is undone here: the speech is called good.
THE ROOT
דִּבֵּרוּ
dibberu
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; the same root also names a word, matter, or thing.
The verse repeats forms of this root for both “spoken” and “that which they have spoken.” Hebrew holds speech and the matter spoken together: these words are treated as something substantial, and the LORD calls that substance good.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The root makes the people’s speech a matter with substance, not mere sound.
dibber: Speak, declare.
דִּבֵּר
This is the speaking action repeated in the verse; the LORD evaluates what the people have actually said.
הֵיטִיבוּ
heytivu
GROWS FROM
יטב
To be good or pleasing; in this verb form, to do well.
“they have spoken well” in this verse is heytivu. The judgment is that the speaking itself is good. The root can describe what is pleasing or beneficial, so the verse recognizes value in the words as spoken, not only in what may follow.
ALSO GROWS
yatab: Be good, be pleasing, or do well.
יָטַב
This base verb carries the quality the LORD attributes to the people’s speech.
heytiv: Do well or act beneficially; the Hiphil form of the root.
הֵיטִיב
The verse’s form, הֵיטִיבוּ (heytivu), says they have done well in speaking.
THE PATTERN
A spoken need can be heard as good when it gives honest form to what a person can bear.
And the LORD heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They have spoken well in all they have said.A man has joy in the answer of his mouth, and a word in its season, how good it is!Jesus answered and said to him, What do you want me to do for you? The blind man said to him, My teacher, that I might look up again.THE THREAD
And they said to Moses, You speak with us, and we will hear and respond. But do not let God speak with us, lest we die.The connected verse gives the words behind this answer: the people ask Moses to speak with them because direct speech feels unbearable. “Speak” and “spoken” share דבר (d-b-r), meaning to speak and also a word or matter; here, their voiced limit is received as good speech.
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