What Does Exodus 18:20 Mean?
And you shall shine the statutes and instructions into them, and show them the way they must walk, and the deed they must do.
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 thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do.THE KEY
The way being shown is a track to tread: what becomes known takes shape in walking and work.
THE MEANING
Direction reaches you as something made perceptible, then lived in your steps and work. Knowing the way and walking it belong together; the work is where the way takes form.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that understanding the right instruction is complete by itself dissolves here; knowing the way, walking it, and doing its work belong together.
THE ROOT
וְהוֹדַעְתָּ
vehodaʿta
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know or perceive; in this form, to make known.
“shew” in this verse is vehodaʿta. The way is made known by bringing it into perception. Direction here is more than words recited: it becomes something the hearer can recognize and follow.
ALSO GROWS
yada: Know, perceive.
יָדַע
The same root ties showing the way to knowing it.
daʿat: Knowledge, perception.
דַּעַת
This branch echoes the verse’s movement from instruction toward a way that can be understood.
דֶּרֶךְ
derekh
GROWS FROM
דרך
d-r-k
To tread or step.
The word for a way grows from the action of treading. The path being shown is a course of movement, not merely an idea.
ALSO GROWS
darakh: Tread, step.
דָּרַךְ
It reveals the action held within the word for a path.
midrakh: A place to tread; a foothold.
מִדְרָךְ
This branch makes the path concrete: it is ground where a foot can land.
יֵלְכוּ
yelku
GROWS FROM
הלך
h-l-k
To walk or go.
“walk” in this verse is yelku. The way and the walking use different roots, yet meet in the same movement: a path is shown, then taken step by step. The verse joins direction to embodied action and the work that follows.
ALSO GROWS
halakh: Walk or go.
הָלַךְ
This root gives the verse its movement along the way.
halikhah: Walking, a journey.
הֲלִיכָה
It carries the verb into the larger course of movement through life.
THE PATTERN
Direction becomes tangible when what is heard is perceived as a path and carried into action.
You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live, and so that it may go well with you, and so that you may lengthen your days in the land you shall take hold of.Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live, and so that it may go well with you, and so that you may lengthen your days in the land you shall take hold of.This verse pairs דְּרָכִים (derakhim, ways), from דרך (d-r-k, tread), with תֵּלֵכוּן (telekhun, walk), from הלך (h-l-k, walk or go). The shared movement makes clear how a shown direction becomes a path taken.
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