What Does Exodus 18:7 Mean?
And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and bowed down, and kissed him; and they asked each other after their wholeness; and they came into the tent.
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 went out to meet his father in law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent.THE KEY
The “welfare” Moses and his father-in-law ask after is שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness): they greet each other by asking about one another’s well-being before entering the tent together.
THE MEANING
Welcome takes shape here through approach, bowing, a kiss, and questions asked both ways. Each asks after the other’s wholeness, and the encounter ends with them entering a shared space.
THE ROOT
לְשָׁלוֹם
le-shalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, intact, or well; by extension, wholeness and well-being.
The word translated “welfare” belongs to a root whose branches include both completeness and making good what is owed. Their question reaches toward each other’s wholeness, carrying more than a polite check-in.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes clear that the well-being they ask about is framed as wholeness.
shillem: Repay, recompense, or make restitution.
שִׁלֵּם
The same root extends from being whole to setting something right, revealing a wider field of restoration within the greeting.
חֹתְנוֹ
chotno
GROWS FROM
חתן
ḥ-t-n
To enter or establish a bond of kinship through marriage.
The word for “father-in-law” comes from the marriage-kinship root, shared with “bridegroom” and a verb for forming affinity by marriage. It names a bond made through joining families, which shapes the welcome in this scene.
ALSO GROWS
chatan: Bridegroom or son-in-law.
חָתָן
This related word shows the root’s connection to kinship formed through marriage.
hitchatten: Form an affinity or alliance through marriage.
הִתְחַתֵּן
This verb shows the root extending from a family relationship to the joining of households.
מֹשֶׁה
Moshe
GROWS FROM
משה
m-sh-h
To draw out, especially as the naming line in Exodus 2:10 explains the name Moshe.
“Moses” in this verse is Moshe. The name Moshe carries the nature of being drawn out, from the root used when Pharaoh’s daughter names him. Here the one named through being drawn out moves outward to meet another; the movement echoes his name’s nature, though “went out” is a different Hebrew root.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This is the verb behind the name’s connection to being drawn from the water.
meshitihu: I drew him out.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
This form appears in the naming explanation in Exodus 2:10 and makes the name’s root sense explicit.
THE PATTERN
Reunion becomes visible through movement toward another, expressed in bodily welcome.
And he lifted his eyes and saw, and look, three men stood beside him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent opening, and bowed down to the earth.And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and they wept.And he rose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and his inward parts were moved, and he ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him.THE THREAD
And he asked them about their wholeness, and said, Is your father whole, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?Genesis uses the same word, לְשָׁלוֹם (le-shalom, for well-being), in the question translated “asked them of their welfare.” The shared wording opens this greeting as an inquiry into one another’s wholeness.
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