What Does Exodus 15:16 Mean?
Terror and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of your arm they shall be as still as a stone, until your people cross over, O LORD, until this people you have bought cross over.
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
Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased.THE KEY
The LORD’s strength makes the threat fall silent while the people he has acquired keep crossing.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s strength falls as fear on those opposing the people, and they become silent and rigid as stone. Meanwhile, the people pass through, and the repeated “till” ties that stillness to their crossing. “Purchased” also carries the sense of acquiring or possessing: the people cross as the LORD’s own.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a threat always has the power to stop the threatened: here the threat is brought to a standstill while the people pass through.
THE ROOT
יִדְּמוּ
yiddemu
GROWS FROM
דמם
to be silent, become still, or cease
“still” in this verse is yiddemu. The stillness here is silence and cessation, not willing rest: dread falls on them, and they become “as a stone.” That stoppage lasts only until the people finish crossing, so their stillness marks the passage’s opening.
ALSO GROWS
dom: A command to become still or silent.
דֹּם
It shows that stillness belongs to the same root as the verse’s image of a threat losing motion.
dumiyyah: Quietness or silent waiting.
דּוּמִיָּה
It carries the same seed of silence that the verse gives a physical shape in the stone-like stillness.
יַעֲבֹר
ya'avor
GROWS FROM
עבר
to cross, pass over, or go through
“cross over” in this verse is ya'avor. The crossing verb is repeated twice: “thy people pass over” and “the people pass over.” Its root also gives Hebrew words for the other side and a crossing place, so the verse frames the people’s movement as a passage from one side to another.
ALSO GROWS
ʿever: The far side or what lies beyond.
עֵבֶר
It gives the crossing a destination: movement carries the people toward the other side.
ma'avar: A crossing place or passage.
מַעֲבָר
It makes visible the passage contained in the repeated verb.
קָנִיתָ
qanita
GROWS FROM
קנה
to acquire or possess; in some usages, to create
“bought” in this verse is qanita. The word rendered “purchased” carries the root sense of acquiring or possessing. The people are named as the LORD’s own, so their crossing is also movement under the care of the one who holds them as his possession.
ALSO GROWS
qoneh: One who acquires or possesses.
קֹנֶה
It names the one who holds what has been acquired, matching the verse’s “which thou hast purchased.”
qinyan: Something acquired or possessed.
קִנְיָן
It makes explicit the belonging carried by the root behind “purchased.”
THE PATTERN
What blocks the threatened people’s passage loses its power of movement when the LORD intervenes.
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.The sea saw and fled; the Jordan turns backward.When they had gone past the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate that carries into the city, which swung open for them by itself. They went out and passed through one street, and at once the messenger went away from him.THE THREAD
And the priests who lifted the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood steady on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had finished crossing over Jordan.The same root עָבַר (ʿavar, cross or pass over) carries the repeated crossing in both verses. Here, the people’s passage continues until everyone has crossed, while those who stand firm hold the way open.
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