What Does Deuteronomy 5:6 Mean?
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
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
I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.THE KEY
God is named here through the act of bringing you out: deliverance is the ground of this relationship.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to the reader in whatever has become a house of bondage: it names the one who brings them out. The reader’s identity is not confined to the place that held them; the verse opens toward life beyond it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that the place of bondage is your final identity falls away: the verse names you through the one who brings you out, not the house that held you.
THE ROOT
הוֹצֵאתִיךָ
hotsētikha
GROWS FROM
יצא
yatsa
To go out, come forth, or emerge.
The verb translated “brought out” carries the movement of going forth: the defining action is an exit from confinement. The English phrase can sound like a completed rescue, while the Hebrew root also holds the opening movement into what lies beyond.
ALSO GROWS
yetzi’ah: Going out; an exit or departure.
יְצִיאָה
It makes the verse’s deliverance a real passage out, not just a change in status.
motsa: A going forth, exit, or source.
מוֹצָא
The same root can name both the way out and the point from which something emerges.
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
צרר
tsarar
To bind, confine, or constrict; the related צַר (tsar) means narrow or tight.
The place-name carries the sound of צַר (tsar, narrow) and its -ayim ending, so Egypt can be heard here as an image of narrowed life. “Brought out” then names movement from constriction toward room to live.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow, tight, constricted.
צַר
It gives the land of Egypt a spatial resonance: life reduced to a narrow place.
tsarah: Distress or trouble; a tight place.
צָרָה
It echoes the pressure of bondage as an inward as well as outward constriction.
עֲבָדִים
avadim
GROWS FROM
עבד
avad
To serve or work.
The “house of bondage” is literally a house of avadim, servants or slaves, from the root of serving. The verse holds the reversal inside its wording: the one who was confined to forced service is brought out by the one who names them as belonging to God.
ALSO GROWS
eved: A servant or slave.
עֶבֶד
It names the person held within the house of bondage.
avodah: Work or service.
עֲבוֹדָה
It shows how service can describe either ordinary labor or the life imposed by bondage.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance moves a person out of bondage and into room to live.
He brings me out into a broad place; he pulls me loose, because he delights in me.The breath of the Lord LORD is upon me, for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the bowed ones; he has sent me to bind up the broken of heart, to proclaim flowing freedom to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are chained.So if the Son sets you free, you will be truly free.THE THREAD
He brings me out into a broad place; he pulls me loose, because he delights in me.“Brought me forth” and “brought thee out” draw on the same Hebrew root, יצא (yatsa, to go out or come forth). Deuteronomy names the exit from bondage; this verse reveals the open space on the other side.
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