What Does Deuteronomy 4:13 Mean?
And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to do, even the ten words; and he wrote them upon two tablets of stone.
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 declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.THE KEY
What the KJV calls ten commandments, Hebrew calls ten words, spoken, written, and given to take shape in action.
THE MEANING
The covenant reaches you as words declared, written, and given shape in action. What is spoken becomes visible on stone; what is written is entrusted to be done. The verse holds hearing, inscription, and lived practice in one movement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that covenant is only an idea to agree with: its words are joined to embodied doing.
THE ROOT
עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים
aseret ha-devarim
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
Speak; word, utterance, or matter.
“the ten words” in this verse is aseret ha-devarim. The Hebrew phrase means “ten words,” where the KJV says “ten commandments.” The same root holds both the spoken word and the thing spoken, joining the covenant’s declaration to the words written on stone.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, utterance, matter.
דָּבָר
This singular form reveals that the covenant’s commands are also words: speech made specific and shareable.
dibbēr: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
The same root links the written words to the speaking that declares them.
כָּתַב
katav
GROWS FROM
כ־ת־ב
k-t-b
Write or inscribe.
“wrote” in this verse is katav. Writing gives spoken words a visible, lasting form. Here the covenant’s words move from declaration to inscription on stone, where they can be seen and carried.
ALSO GROWS
ketav: Writing or script.
כְּתָב
The branch names the visible form the spoken covenant takes on the tablets.
mikhtav: A written message or letter.
מִכְתָּב
It shows how writing can carry words beyond the moment they are spoken.
THE PATTERN
Covenant words move from hearing into written form and lived action.
And he took the scroll of the covenant, and called it out in the ears of the people, and they said, All that the LORD has said we will do, and we will hear and respond.But this is the covenant I will cut with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will set my instruction within them, and write it upon their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank waters. And he wrote upon the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.The Hebrew word דְּבָרִים (devarim, words) comes from the same root, ד־ב־ר (d-b-r), as the phrase translated “ten commandments.” Exodus makes the link explicit: the writing on the tablets is called the words of the covenant.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us