What Does Deuteronomy 5:27 Mean?
Draw near, and hear all that the LORD our God will say, and speak to us all that the LORD our God will speak to you. We will hear and respond, and we will do it.
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
Go thou near, and hear all that the LORD our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the LORD our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “hear” already leans toward response, so hearing and doing unfold as one movement.
THE MEANING
The voice reaches you through nearness, listening, and response. Here, hearing is not mere reception: the promise to do what is heard makes response part of the hearing itself. One person carries the word to many, who receive it together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that understanding a word is enough; the verse joins hearing to response.
THE ROOT
וְשָׁמַעְנוּ
veshamaʿnu
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear or listen; here, hearing carries an implied response.
“hear and respond” in this verse is veshamaʿnu. The people promise, “we will hear it, and do it,” but the Hebrew word for hearing already opens toward response. The verse presents doing not as a separate addition to listening, but as where listening leads.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear; listen and respond when obedience is implied.
שְׁמַע
The same root makes the promise to hear more than receiving sound: it includes a response to what is heard.
shemuʿah: A report or tidings; something heard and conveyed.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch echoes the verse’s movement of speech from the one who hears it to the people who receive it.
קְרַב
qerav
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־ב
q-r-b
To approach or draw near.
“Draw near” in this verse is qerav. The instruction to “go thou near” shares its root with qorban, the word for an offering understood as drawing near. The passage begins with approach to the voice, then carries its words outward to the community.
ALSO GROWS
qorbān: An offering; a drawing near.
קָרְבָּן
It links the act of coming near in this verse with approach expressed through an offering.
qarov: Near or close.
קָרוֹב
It carries the same root’s sense of closeness, underscoring the nearness requested before the words are received.
THE PATTERN
A word is received fully when hearing moves into 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 be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon the rock.THE THREAD
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.“Hear” in this call and “we will hear” in Deuteronomy 5:27 share the Hebrew root shamaʿ, ש־מ־ע, meaning to hear or listen. Here that hearing is explicitly joined to doing; in Deuteronomy 6:4, the same root opens a call that unfolds immediately into wholehearted love.
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