What Does Exodus 19:7 Mean?
And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and set before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him.
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 came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him.THE KEY
The one drawn out of the water now brings the LORD’s words into the open, where the community can face them together.
THE MEANING
A word entrusted to one person enters shared space when it is set before the community. Here it stands before the elders’ faces, where it can be received together and carried forward.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a word received by one person should remain private dissolves here: Moses brings it before the elders.
THE ROOT
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
משה
Draw out; pull from the water.
The name Moses carries the sense of being drawn out. Here the one drawn out carries the LORD’s words into the open, setting them before the community.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
The root behind the name connects Moses with being drawn from the water.
mashui: Drawn out.
מָשׁוּי
This describes the state carried in the name: Moses is the one drawn out, now bringing the words before others.
הַדְּבָרִים
had-devarim
GROWS FROM
דבר
Speak; as a noun, a word or a matter.
The Hebrew word can mean both spoken words and matters or things. What is set before the elders is not an empty report: the LORD’s speech becomes a shared matter for them to receive.
ALSO GROWS
davar: A word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
It holds speech and substance together in the words Moses sets before the elders.
dibber: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
The spoken act and the words themselves grow from the same root.
medabber: Speaking.
מְדַבֵּר
The root keeps the living act of speaking close to the matter being shared.
וַיִּקְרָא
vayyiqra
GROWS FROM
קרא
Call out, summon, or proclaim.
The elders are called into the space where the words will be set before them. This root also carries the sense of reading aloud, linking the gathering of listeners with the public voicing of words.
ALSO GROWS
qara: To call, summon, or read aloud.
קָרָא
Moses calls the elders so they can hear what he sets before them.
miqra: A public reading or convocation.
מִקְרָא
The related word joins an assembled people with words voiced in their hearing.
THE PATTERN
A word received by one becomes communal when it is voiced, made visible, and heard together.
When all Israel comes to see the face of the LORD your God in the place he will choose, you will call out this instruction before all Israel, in their ears.So they read aloud from the scroll of the instruction of God, spread open, and set the sense in place, and caused the people to perceive in the reading.And for this reason we also thank God without leaving a gap. For when you took hold of the word of God that you heard from us, you received it not as the word of humankind, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you who trust.THE THREAD
And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart.The same Hebrew noun דְּבָרִים (devarim, words or matters) appears here. In Exodus the words are set before the elders’ faces; in Deuteronomy those words are in the heart, moving from shared presence toward inward holding.
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