What Does Deuteronomy 5:15 Mean?
Remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD your God brought you out from there with a gripping hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to guard the sabbath day.
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 remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.THE KEY
The Sabbath turns remembered deliverance from constriction into a present practice of stopping.
THE MEANING
When life narrows around you, this verse addresses you as one the LORD your God brings out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Sabbath makes that release tangible as stopping: the old claim that you exist only to serve does not define your day. The deliverance is present whenever rest breaks that claim.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Rest is something you earn only after proving your usefulness; this verse grounds rest in deliverance.
THE ROOT
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
צ־ר־ר
ts-r-r
To bind, press in, or constrict; the related צַר (tsar) means narrow.
“Egypt” in this verse is Mitzrayim. Mitzrayim is heard through tzar as the narrow place, with -ayim carrying the twofold form: the two narrows. Here, the name points to the constriction the LORD’s mighty hand breaks open, so Sabbath begins in release from narrowed life.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow, tight, constricted.
צַר
It gives the name Mitzrayim its sense of a place that presses life into narrowness.
tsarah: Distress, trouble, anguish.
צָרָה
It shows how constriction becomes an experienced state, the very state from which the verse says you are brought out.
הוֹצִיאָךָ
Hotsi'akha
GROWS FROM
י־צ־א
y-ts-ʾ
To go out, come forth, or emerge.
“Brought thee out” in this verse is Hotsi'akha. The verb carries the movement of going out, with a causative form: the LORD causes you to emerge. Deliverance here is a passage out of the narrow place, not merely a new description of it.
ALSO GROWS
yetzi'ah: Going out, departure.
יְצִיאָה
It preserves the verse’s central movement: life passes out of constriction.
motza: Exit, outlet, way out.
מוֹצָא
It makes visible the opening implicit in being brought out from Egypt.
שַׁבָּת
Shabbat
GROWS FROM
ש־ב־ת
sh-b-t
To cease, stop, or desist.
The Sabbath’s root is stopping, and the verse links that stop to being brought out of servitude. Rest becomes a lived reminder that labor does not own every hour.
ALSO GROWS
shavat: To cease, stop, or desist.
שָׁבַת
It reveals the action at the heart of the Sabbath day: work comes to a stop.
shabbaton: Sabbath rest, a period of cessation.
שַׁבָּתוֹן
It extends the same root into a named time of rest, matching the verse’s practice of remembered release.
THE PATTERN
Remembered deliverance takes visible form in rest and in release for others.
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your sojourner who is within your gates.And remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God ransomed you. Therefore I command you this word today.The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.THE THREAD
Remember the sabbath day, to set it apart.Both verses turn on שַׁבָּת (shabbat, cessation), the same word for Sabbath. Exodus says to remember the day; Deuteronomy shows what the day remembers: the LORD bringing you out of constriction, so rest itself becomes a lived reminder of release.
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