What Does Exodus 18:27 Mean?
And Moses sent his father-in-law away, and he went his way into his own land.
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 let his father in law depart; and he went his way into his own land.THE KEY
Moses’ verb for letting his father-in-law depart is shalach, sending him onward, with release already inside the act of care.
THE MEANING
A bond can remain real when the shared moment ends; what passes between people can travel with them after they part. You have a way and a ground of your own, and another person’s departure does not erase what was shared.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that care must keep another person near; release can carry care forward as each person returns to their own way.
THE ROOT
וַיְשַׁלַּח
vayeshallach
GROWS FROM
שלח
send, send forth, release
“sent away” in this verse is vayeshallach. The English “let ... depart” can sound like merely allowing someone to leave; shalach makes Moses’ action an active sending forth. Its branches also carry the images of provision extended and waters sent onward: release is a movement that gives another a path.
ALSO GROWS
Shiloach: sent forth; the sent waters
שִׁלֹחַ
Like the waters sent onward, the departure here is a release that carries movement beyond the one who sends.
Shulchan: table; provision extended
שֻׁלְחָן
This branch holds the extending aspect of shalach: sending forth can also make provision accessible to another.
מֹשֶׁה
Moshe
GROWS FROM
משה
draw out, especially from water
Moses’ name carries the image of one drawn out. Beside shalach, the name creates an echo: the one named as drawn out now sends another onward.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: to draw out
מָשָׁה
Exodus 2:10 uses this word to explain Moses’ name, keeping “drawn out” inside the name’s meaning.
Moshe: the one drawn out
מֹשֶׁה
The name’s nature echoes in this verse as Moses becomes the one who sends another forth.
THE PATTERN
Care can culminate in sending someone onward, carrying what has been shared into their own way.
And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men.The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to be with him, but Jesus let him go, saying, Return to your own house, and tell how much God has done for you. And he went away and heralded throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they let them go.THE THREAD
And the men rose from there and gazed down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked with them to send them on their way.“To bring them on the way” translates the same shalach root that appears here as “let ... depart.” Abraham’s hospitality carries the visitors to the point of sending them onward; the same verb lets care include release.
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