What Does Exodus 2:14 Mean?
And he said, Who set you as ruler and judge over us? Do you intend to slay me, as you slew the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this word is known.
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 he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.THE KEY
The question that challenges Moses’s authority also exposes the matter he thought was contained.
THE MEANING
When what you have kept hidden becomes known, secrecy no longer protects you; fear surfaces with exposure. The challenge over who made someone ruler and judge shows how authority can falter at the same moment a hidden matter comes into view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that keeping an act hidden guarantees that its consequences stay contained.
THE ROOT
נוֹדַע
nodaʿ
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
To know, perceive
The form nodaʿ comes from yada: knowing as perception and encounter, not only as detached information. “This thing is known” marks the moment the matter has entered someone’s awareness.
ALSO GROWS
yada: To know, perceive
יָדַע
The active form shows the same root’s movement into knowing.
daʿat: Knowledge
דַּעַת
The noun names what the root produces: knowledge or understanding.
הַדָּבָר
ha-davar
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
To speak; word, matter
The Hebrew says ha-davar nodaʿ: this word or matter is known. English separates “thing” from speech, while Hebrew lets the matter carry the same word-shape as what is spoken.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, thing
דָּבָר
It is the noun used here for the matter that has become known.
diber: He spoke
דִּבֵּר
The related verb reveals the root’s link between a matter and its being spoken.
THE PATTERN
What is hidden can enter shared knowledge, and disclosure changes the ground on which a person stands.
But if you will not do so, look, you have missed the mark against the LORD, and know that your falling short will find you.For there is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be known.Therefore, judge nothing before its season, until the Lord comes, who will light up the hidden things of darkness, and will make visible the plans of the hearts. And then the praise will come to each one from God.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. O LORD, you probe me, and you perceive me.Both verses use יָדַע (yada, to know and perceive): Exodus says the matter has become known, while the psalm says the person is known. The shared root opens “known” as more than a report; it can name a reality brought within knowing.
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