What Does Exodus 20:21 Mean?
And the people stood far off, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
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 the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.THE KEY
God is already present inside the darkness Moses approaches.
THE MEANING
You may stand at a distance from what you cannot make sense of; this verse locates God within the thick darkness itself. Moses’ nearness takes shape inside the obscurity, where God already is.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that darkness means God is absent dissolves here: the darkness is named as the place where God is.
THE ROOT
נִגַּשׁ
nigash
GROWS FROM
נגשׁ
to approach, draw near
“drew near” in this verse is nigash. This root also gives הִגִּישׁ (higgish), “to bring near” or “present,” so nearness can be both an approach and an act of bringing something before another. Here Moses himself crosses the distance toward the very darkness the people keep at arm’s length.
ALSO GROWS
nigash: approached, drew near
נִגַּשׁ
This is the verb used for Moses’ movement toward the darkness where God is.
higgish: brought near, presented
הִגִּישׁ
This related form shows the same root can describe bringing something into nearness, as well as approaching.
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
משה
to draw out, especially from water
“Moses” in this verse is Mosheh. The name carries the verb “draw out”: Exodus 2:10 voices the same root in “I drew him out.” Here the one named for being drawn out now draws near into thick darkness, a quiet reversal in the verse’s movement.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: to draw out
מָשָׁה
This is the verb behind Moses’ name and gives the name its nature.
meshithihu: I drew him out
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
Exodus 2:10 uses this form of the root; it echoes the name carried by the person who now approaches.
THE PATTERN
God’s presence can be encountered within obscurity, and nearness can move into the darkness rather than wait for it to clear.
Then Solomon said, The LORD said that he would pitch his tent in the thick darkness.He sets darkness as his hiding place; around him is his booth of dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.Let us draw near with a true heart in the fullness of trust, our hearts sprinkled from a burdened shared sight, and our bodies bathed in clean waters.THE THREAD
Then Solomon said, The LORD said that he would pitch his tent in the thick darkness.“Thick darkness” is עֲרָפֶל (ʿărāfel), meaning thick darkness, the same Hebrew word used here. This verse names that darkness as a dwelling place for the LORD, so Moses approaches a place marked by presence.
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