What Does Deuteronomy 5:28 Mean?
And the LORD heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They have spoken well in all they have said.
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 the LORD heard the voice of your words, when ye spake unto me; and the LORD said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee: they have well said all that they have spoken.THE KEY
God’s hearing is precise enough to recognize goodness in human speech.
THE MEANING
The LORD hears the voice of your words, not only their sound, but what they carry. What is well said is recognized as well said. Here, divine hearing includes discernment, not mere detection.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that God’s hearing only exposes what is wrong: the LORD hears these words and affirms them as well spoken.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁמַע
vayyishmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, attend, receive.
English “heard” can sound like sound simply entered awareness, but this root also carries attentive reception; in the imperative shemaʿ, it means “hear and respond.” The LORD’s hearing is shown by what follows: he recognizes the quality of the words and calls them well spoken.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear; hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
The same root opens the call “Hear, O Israel,” where hearing is a response to what is received.
shemuʿah: Report, news; what is heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch shows how hearing receives something with content, not just sound.
דִּבְרֵיכֶם
dibrêkhem
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak; word or matter.
The Hebrew word for “words” grows from the same seed as “to speak,” and davar can name both a word and a matter. The repeated “voice of the words” holds sound and substance together: what the LORD hears is the people’s expressed matter, which he affirms as well said.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word; matter or thing.
דָּבָר
The shared root lets “words” carry the sense of what is being spoken about, not merely the sounds being made.
dibber: He spoke; to speak.
דִּבֵּר
This verb and the noun for “words” share one root, joining speech to the content the LORD hears.
THE PATTERN
Words are received for what they carry: speech can disclose the heart and be recognized as good.
Let the words of my mouth be received, and the murmur of my heart before your face. O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.The thoughts of harm are a recoiling thing to the LORD, but the words of the clean are sweet.A good human brings out good from the good treasure of the heart, and an evil human brings out evil from the evil treasure of the heart, for from the overflow of the heart his mouth speaks.THE THREAD
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.The people’s promise to hear and do uses the same שָׁמַע (shamaʿ, “hear and respond”) root as the LORD’s hearing here. The verse turns that shared root back toward them: their request to receive God’s words is itself heard and affirmed.
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