What Does Exodus 20:22 Mean?
And the LORD said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, You have perceived that I have spoken with you from the heavens.
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 LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.THE KEY
Heaven’s speech is presented as an encounter the people can witness, not merely a message passed on to them.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as a witness to speech that comes from heaven and is directed “with you.” The verse holds seeing and speaking together: divine communication is something encountered, not distant information.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what comes from heaven can only reach you as an abstract or secondhand idea; here, the people witness that God speaks with them.
THE ROOT
דִּבַּרְתִּי
dibbarti
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
To speak; the related noun means word, matter, or thing.
“spoken” in this verse is dibbarti. English makes “talked” sound like information passing between heaven and earth. The Hebrew noun from this root, davar, can mean both “word” and “matter,” holding speech close to what is set before the hearer; here, the speech is explicitly “with you.”
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The spoken word belongs to the realm of what is present and addressed, not just an idea at a distance.
devarim: Words or matters; the plural of davar.
דְּבָרִים
The same root can name both speech and its subject matter, bringing the message and what it concerns together.
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
מ־ש־ה
To draw out, especially from water.
Moses’ name is linked in Exodus 2:10 to being drawn out of the water. Here, the one whose name carries that image stands between the heavenly voice and the people, conveying the words to them.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This is the action named in the explanation of Moses’ name, joining the messenger’s identity to being drawn from the water.
Mosheh: Moses, the name linked to “I drew him out.”
מֹשֶׁה
The person addressed by God is himself named through the language of drawing out, and here he carries the speech from God to the people.
THE PATTERN
Divine speech becomes knowable through an encounter people can hear and recognize.
And the LORD said to Moses, Look, I come to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may hear and respond when I speak with you, and lean their weight on you for the ages. And Moses told the words of the people to the LORD.And the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the voice of the words, but saw no shape; you heard only a voice.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.THE THREAD
And the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the voice of the words, but saw no shape; you heard only a voice.Deuteronomy uses the same Hebrew root for “spake” as Exodus uses for “talked.” It opens the scene further: the people witness the speech, while the voice reaches them without a visible likeness.
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