What Does Exodus 14:13 Mean?
And Moses said to the people, Do not fear, take your stand, and see the deliverance of the LORD, which he will do for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again for the ages.
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 Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.THE KEY
The threat is not the last thing you see: the verse makes the LORD’s deliverance the object of sight.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you when danger crowds the horizon and names the LORD’s deliverance as what is being shown today. The pursuit is real, but it is not the final horizon; the verse declares that the threat before you will no longer command your sight.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that the danger you see now is permanent, and that its presence means deliverance cannot be seen.
THE ROOT
יְשׁוּעַת
yeshuʿat
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-sh-ʿ
To deliver, bring out to safety; deliverance as movement from constriction into spaciousness.
The word translated “salvation” is yeshuʿat, a form of yeshuʿah (יְשׁוּעָה), meaning deliverance. The verse presents that deliverance as something the LORD makes visible today, not merely an idea to hold onto.
ALSO GROWS
yashaʿ: Deliver, bring out to safety.
יָשַׁע
This verb carries the movement of the deliverance named in the verse.
moshiaʿ: Deliverer; one who brings out to safety.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
The branch names the one who acts, connecting the LORD’s nature with the deliverance the people are told they will see.
הַמִּצְרִים
hammiṣrîm Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
צרר
ṣ-r-r
To press in, bind, or constrict; צַר (ṣar) means narrow or tight.
The Egyptians are named with a word linked to Mitzrayim, the narrow place. Their pursuit makes constriction concrete at the sea; alongside yeshuʿah, deliverance, the verse holds the movement from what presses in toward what opens out.
ALSO GROWS
ṣar: Narrow, tight; an adversary or distressing force.
צַר
It gives the image of the pressure closing around the people as the Egyptians pursue them.
mēṣar: A narrow place or distress.
מֵצַר
This branch makes the verse’s constriction more than geography: it is the pressure of being trapped with no visible way through.
רְאוּ
reʾu reʾitem
GROWS FROM
ראה
r-ʾ-h
To see, look at, or perceive.
The root repeats across the verse: the people see the LORD’s deliverance, remember the Egyptians they have seen, and are told they will see them no more. The repeated verb makes sight itself part of the shift, from a view filled by pursuit to a view in which deliverance is visible.
ALSO GROWS
roʾeh: One who sees; a seer.
רֹאֶה
It shows the root can name the one perceiving, drawing attention to the people as witnesses of what the LORD reveals.
marʾeh: Appearance, sight, or what is seen.
מַרְאֶה
This branch echoes the verse’s concern with what fills the field of vision and what disappears from it.
THE PATTERN
At the edge of constriction, the LORD’s deliverance becomes visible and the threat loses its claim on the field of sight.
You will not need to fight in this war. Take your stand, and see the deliverance of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not fear, nor be shattered. Tomorrow, go out against them, for the LORD will be with you.He remembers his faithful love and his steadiness toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth see the deliverance of our God.For my eyes have perceived your deliverance,THE THREAD
He remembers his faithful love and his steadiness toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth see the deliverance of our God.Both verses use yeshuʿah (יְשׁוּעָה), meaning deliverance, and join it to seeing. Exodus names deliverance at the edge of constriction; Psalm 98 widens that sight to the ends of the earth.
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