What Does Exodus 18:18 Mean?
You will surely wither, both you and this people with you, for this word is too heavy for you; you are not able to do it alone.
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
Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.THE KEY
The repeated Hebrew root makes the warning communal: solitary carrying wears down both the person holding the work and the people around them.
THE MEANING
When every responsibility runs through one person, both that person and the people with them wear down. The load itself exceeds one person’s capacity; the strain reaches the whole circle, not only the carrier.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that responsibility means being able to carry everything alone; this verse shows that solitary carrying wears down both the carrier and the people with them.
THE ROOT
נָבֹל תִּבֹּל
nāḇōl tibbol
GROWS FROM
נבל
wither, fade, waste away
“wither” in this verse is nāḇōl tibbol. English gives the phrase as “wear away”; Hebrew repeats the same root to make the wearing-down emphatic. The repeated verb casts the load as withering depletion, and applies it to both the carrier and the people with him.
ALSO GROWS
nāḇōl: withering, fading; the infinitive absolute form
נָבֹל
Its pairing with tibbol repeats the core action and intensifies the warning.
tibbōl: you will wither or fade; the second-person imperfect form
תִּבֹּל
It makes the repeated root a forecast addressed directly to the one carrying the work.
nebālāh: folly, disgrace
נְבָלָה
This related form carries the sense of what has become debased; here the root names depletion through the image of withering.
כָּבֵד
kāvēḏ
GROWS FROM
כבד
be heavy, weighty
The word rendered “heavy” belongs to כבד, the same root family behind kavod, “weight” or “weightiness,” and the verb for honoring as weighty. That shared vocabulary makes the workload’s weight concrete: it exceeds one person’s capacity.
ALSO GROWS
kavod: weight, weightiness; often rendered glory
כָּבוֹד
It shows that “heavy” and “weight” belong to the same Hebrew word family.
kibbed: to honor, treat as weighty
כִּבֵּד
The root also connects weight with the act of assigning importance; here the verse names the real weight of the work.
THE PATTERN
A load that exceeds one person’s capacity is sustained through shared responsibility.
"I cannot carry all this people alone, for it is too heavy for me."Two are better than one, because they have good wages for their toil.Carry one another's weights, and so you fill up the instruction of the Anointed One.THE THREAD
And he becomes like a tree planted by the channels of the waters, that gives its fruit in its season; its leaf does not wither; whatever he does, he breaks through.Exodus repeats נבל to say that the solitary carrier will wither; Psalm 1 uses the same root for the leaf that does not wither. Its image of a tree by flowing water opens a contrast between wearing down and life that remains rooted and nourished.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us