What Does Exodus 2:21 Mean?
And Moses was willing to settle with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses.
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 was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.THE KEY
Moses (מֹשֶׁה, Mosheh, “drawn out”) now chooses to dwell: his story turns from being brought out to making a home.
THE MEANING
You can find room to settle after life has driven you from your first home. Here, Moses is willing to stay with Reuel, and Reuel’s welcome opens a household and a marriage. A new place can become home without becoming your birthplace.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that the place where your life began is the only place where you can belong.
THE ROOT
לָשֶׁבֶת
lashevet
GROWS FROM
ישב
To sit, settle, or dwell.
The word translated “dwell” comes from יָשַׁב (yashav, to sit or settle), so the verse holds both taking a place and making a home. Its family includes יֹשֵׁב (yoshev, one who dwells) and מוֹשָׁב (moshav, a dwelling place or settlement): Moses’s willingness is not a passing stop but a decision to take up residence.
ALSO GROWS
yoshev: One who sits, remains, or dwells.
יֹשֵׁב
The same root describes someone who has taken up a place, echoing Moses’s willingness to remain with Reuel.
moshav: A dwelling place or settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
This branch makes dwelling more than a momentary stay: it can name the place where life settles.
וַיִּתֵּן
vayitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
“gave” in this verse is vayitten. The root נתן (nathan, to give, set, or place) carries a shade beyond transfer: the act can also be heard as placing. Reuel’s giving of Zipporah establishes Moses within a household through marriage.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This related word shows how the root’s act of giving can name what is given.
nathun: Given or set in place.
נָתוּן
This form carries the root’s sense of placement, echoing how the marriage gives Moses a place in Reuel’s household.
THE PATTERN
Shared dwelling makes belonging visible.
And Ruth said, Do not press me to let go of you, or to turn back from following after you. For where you walk, I will walk, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people are my people, and your God my God.And the word became flesh and pitched a tent among us, and we beheld his weight, the weight as of the only-born from the Father, full of favor and truth.THE THREAD
One thing I ask of the LORD, this I will seek; that I may settle in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the sweetness of the LORD, and to search out in his temple.Both verses use ישב (yashav, to dwell): Moses is willing to settle with Reuel, while David names dwelling in the LORD’s house as his deepest desire. The shared root opens dwelling as more than an address, it is a life held in nearness.
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