What Does Deuteronomy 4:44 Mean?
And this is the instruction which Moses placed before the children of Israel.
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 this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel:THE KEY
The Torah is direction placed in full view: instruction that points a way to the people who receive it.
THE MEANING
This instruction stands before you now, visible and within reach. It gives direction you can encounter in the open. The verse places that instruction before a people together, not in isolation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that divine instruction is hidden or out of reach: here it is set plainly before the people.
THE ROOT
תּוֹרָה
torah
GROWS FROM
יָרָה
y-r-h
To throw or point; in its teaching sense, to direct or instruct.
The root joins instruction with the act of pointing a way. Torah is direction made available to the people, something that can guide rather than remain abstract.
ALSO GROWS
yarah: To point, direct, or teach.
יָרָה
The root verb shows the directional sense carried within the instruction.
moreh: Teacher or instructor; one who directs.
מוֹרֶה
The teacher and the instruction share the image of pointing toward a way.
torah: Instruction or direction.
תּוֹרָה
This is the word placed before the people in the verse.
שָׂם
sam
GROWS FROM
שׂים
s-y-m
To put, place, or set.
“set” in this verse is sam. The instruction is not merely named; it is placed where the people can encounter it. The phrase לִפְנֵי (lifnei, before or in front of) gives that placement a clear position: the instruction stands in view.
ALSO GROWS
sam: He set or placed.
שָׂם
This is the verb Moses uses to place the instruction before the people.
vayasem: And he set or laid.
וַיָּשֶׂם
Exodus 19:7 uses this form when Moses lays the LORD’s words before the elders, repeating the scene of instruction placed in front of the people.
מֹשֶׁה
Moshe
GROWS FROM
מָשָׁה
m-sh-h
To draw out.
Moses’ name recalls being drawn out of the waters. The verse places instruction before the people through the one whose name carries that image of being drawn out.
ALSO GROWS
Moshe: Moses; a name associated with being drawn out.
מֹשֶׁה
The name brings the image of being drawn out into the scene where instruction is placed before the people.
meshitihu: I drew him out.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
This form in Exodus 2:10 names the drawing out that the name Moshe recalls.
THE PATTERN
Guidance becomes a lived way when it is brought into view for the people it directs.
Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.For the command is a lamp, and the instruction is light, and the reproofs that straighten are the way of life.All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, for exposure, for straightening again, for the training in alignment.THE THREAD
And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and set before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him.Deuteronomy uses שָׂם (sam, set) from שׂים (sim, place); Exodus uses וַיָּשֶׂם (vayasem, he laid) from the same root. In both verses, Moses places instruction before the people so they can meet it directly.
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