What Does Exodus 2:6 Mean?
And she opened it, and saw the child, and behold, the boy was weeping. And she spared him, and said, This is one of the Hebrew children.
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 when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb for compassion also means “to spare”: she recognizes the child as Hebrew and still moves toward preserving his life.
THE MEANING
You remain more than the identity others assign you; the crying child is recognized as Hebrew and also seen in his immediate need. The verse holds both truths together without making his identity a reason to abandon him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that once you are marked as “one of them,” your vulnerability no longer counts.
THE ROOT
וַתַּחְמֹל
wattaḥmōl
GROWS FROM
חמל
ḥ-m-l
to spare, pity, or show compassion
“spared” in this verse is wattaḥmōl. The verb translated “had compassion” can also mean “to spare.” The Hebrew lets compassion carry the possibility of preserving the child, not only a feeling inside the woman.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāmal: to spare; to have pity
חָמַל
The same verb’s range links her compassion with the child’s chance of survival.
ḥemlāh: compassion, pity
חֶמְלָה
This noun names the compassion itself; the verb in this verse makes that regard active.
THE PATTERN
Compassion moves from seeing vulnerability toward sparing or protecting the vulnerable.
And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by the hand of his messengers, rising early and sending, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.And they will be mine, says the LORD of hosts, on the day I make my treasure. And I will spare them, as a man spares his son who serves him.But a certain Samaritan, walking the road, came where he was, and when he saw him, his insides moved over him.THE THREAD
And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by the hand of his messengers, rising early and sending, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.The same verb, חמל (ḥāmal), describes compassion here and in Exodus: its sense also includes sparing. In Exodus it opens toward the preservation of one child; here it moves into sending messengers for a people.
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