What Does Exodus 18:19 Mean?
Now hear and respond to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you. Be for the people before the face of God, and bring the words to God.
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
Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God:THE KEY
The people’s cases reach God as spoken matters, so carrying what is said is already part of the path toward God.
THE MEANING
Your unresolved matter can be brought toward God before it is settled. The verse places listening to counsel and carrying people’s matters Godward within one act of care. Responsibility is real, but judgment does not have to be held as a private possession.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a case must be resolved before it can be brought to God; its unfinished state does not bar it from being carried there.
THE ROOT
דְּבָרִים
devarim
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
Speak; word, matter, or affair.
The word translated “causes” is דְּבָרִים (devarim, words or matters), the plural of דָּבָר (davar, word or matter). Its root connects a case with speech: what is carried toward God is a matter made speakable.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or affair.
דָּבָר
The same word can name both what is spoken and the matter being carried.
dibber: Spoke or spoke with.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal branch makes the link between a spoken word and a “cause” visible.
שְׁמַע
shemaʿ
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, and respond.
“hear and respond” in this verse is shemaʿ. Here, hearing is directed toward counsel, so it opens a response rather than merely registering sound. The same root can name hearing and what is heard, joining attention to communicated words.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: Hear, listen, or heed.
שָׁמַע
The form in this verse asks for attentive hearing that makes room for a response to counsel.
shemuʿah: Report, news, or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch ties hearing to the message being received.
THE PATTERN
Unresolved human matters move toward God by being spoken and carried into God’s presence.
And Moses brought their case before the LORD.I pour out my murmuring before him; I set forth my narrow place before him.Do not be pulled apart over anything, but in everything, through prayer and need, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.THE THREAD
You shall not recognize faces in judgment; hear and respond to the small as well as the great; do not shrink from the face of man; for the judgment is God's; and the word that is too hard for you, draw it near to me, and I will hear and respond to it.Deuteronomy repeats both root-connections: “cause” is דָּבָר (davar, word or matter), and “hear” is שָׁמַע (shamaʿ, hear or listen). The matter is brought to Moses under the statement that judgment belongs to God, so carrying a case toward God includes hearing it.
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