What Does Deuteronomy 4:10 Mean?
Especially the day you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, Assemble the people to me, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn awe of me all the days they live upon the earth, and that they may train their children.
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
Specially the day that thou stoodest before the LORD thy God in Horeb, when the LORD said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.THE KEY
The same Hebrew root means both “learn” and “teach”: awe is received through hearing, then carried onward to children.
THE MEANING
You stand before the LORD as his words are made heard to you; awe is learned through that hearing across the days of your life. What you learn continues outward through the children who are taught.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that awe of God is only instinctive dread or a private feeling: here, it is learned through hearing and carried forward by teaching.
THE ROOT
יִלְמְדוּן
yilmedun
GROWS FROM
ל־מ־ד
l-m-d
to learn; to teach
“train” in this verse is yilmedun. The Hebrew uses the same root for “learn” and “teach”: first the people learn, then they teach their children. English makes these sound like separate processes, while the verse shows what is received becoming what is passed on.
ALSO GROWS
lamad: to learn
לָמַד
This is the root’s learning form, naming what happens as the people hear the words.
limmed: to teach
לִמֵּד
This is the teaching form of the same root, naming how what they learned reaches their children.
לְיִרְאָה
le-yir'ah
GROWS FROM
י־ר־א
y-r-ʾ
to fear, stand in awe
The Hebrew carries fear and awe together; with God as its object, “awe” brings forward the word’s reverent dimension. The verse presents this awe as something learned for all the days of life, not merely a passing reaction.
ALSO GROWS
yareʾ: to fear; to stand in awe
יָרֵא
The verb form shows the lived posture named by the verse’s noun for awe.
noraʾ: awe-inspiring; fearful
נוֹרָא
This related form describes what evokes awe, extending the root from the one who fears to the one who inspires it.
אַשְׁמִעֵם
ashmi'em
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ע
sh-m-ʿ
to hear, listen, heed
“make them hear” in this verse is ashmi'em. The verb form means to cause them to hear: the words are made audible to the gathered people. The next clause shows hearing opening into learned awe, so listening here carries a response beyond sound.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: to hear; to listen
שָׁמַע
This is the root verb beneath the causative form used for making the people hear.
shemaʿ: hear and respond
שְׁמַע
This form holds listening together with response, matching the movement from hearing words to learning awe.
THE PATTERN
God’s words form awe through hearing, and what is learned becomes a way of life that can be taught onward.
Come, children, and hear and respond to me. I train you in the awe of the LORD.And you shall sharpen them to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk along the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.Therefore, receiving an unshakable governance, let us hold favor, through which we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe.THE THREAD
Come, children, and hear and respond to me. I train you in the awe of the LORD.The verse repeats Deuteronomy’s root sequence: hear, learn or teach, and fear or awe. Here the children are addressed directly, making visible how hearing becomes learned awe and passes onward.
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