What Does Deuteronomy 2:17 Mean?
And the LORD spoke to me, saying.
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
That the LORD spake unto me, saying,THE KEY
Hebrew marks both the act of speaking and the saying that follows, so this verse is a threshold where the address begins before its content unfolds.
THE MEANING
As you read, the LORD’s address meets you before the full message is clear: the speaking is already real, while the saying opens onward. You stand at the threshold where being addressed comes before knowing what follows.
THE ROOT
וַיְדַבֵּר
vayedabber
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak or utter; its related noun names a word, matter, or thing.
The verse uses dabar (דָּבָר, davar, “word” or “matter”) for the act of speaking. The root holds speaking close to the word or matter spoken, a connection English separates between “spake” and “word.”
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This noun from the same root links speech with the matter carried by the words.
dibber: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
This verb form makes the act of speaking explicit in the verse.
לֵאמֹר
lemor
GROWS FROM
א־מ־ר
ʾ-m-r
To say or utter.
“saying” in this verse is lemor. Lemor (לֵאמֹר, “to say”) introduces the words that come next. Paired with the verb from dabar (ד־ב־ר, “to speak”), it marks the shift from speech beginning to its content opening.
ALSO GROWS
omer: Utterance or speech.
אֹמֶר
This branch shows the root’s focus on what is uttered.
imrah: Saying or word.
אִמְרָה
This noun makes the spoken content itself visible behind the verse’s introductory formula.
THE PATTERN
Divine speech becomes encounter as it reaches a particular hearer.
And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him from the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am.I will hear and respond to what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak wholeness to his people and to his faithful ones, and let them not turn back to dullness.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.THE THREAD
By the word of the LORD the heavens are made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.The “word” here is davar (דָּבָר, davar, “word” or “matter”), from the same root as “spake” in Deuteronomy. Psalm 33:6 shows that word as active in making, so the speech introduced here belongs to a language where words carry what they bring forth.
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