What Does Exodus 23:13 Mean?
Guard yourselves in all that I have said to you. Do not call up the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth.
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 in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.THE KEY
The verse binds vigilance and speech because what you guard within is what your mouth gives voice to, and a god’s name carries its nature.
THE MEANING
You keep watch over what has been spoken to you, and that guarding reaches your speech. A rival god’s name, שֵׁם (shem: name, carrying nature), is not treated as an empty sound: uttering it gives its nature a place in your mouth and attention. What is held and what is voiced belong to one field.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that naming is weightless, that words are empty labels with no relation to what the mouth carries.
THE ROOT
תִּשָּׁמֵרוּ
tishameru
GROWS FROM
שמר
Guard, watch, keep.
“guard yourselves” in this verse is tishameru. The command translated “be circumspect” comes from שָׁמַר (shamar), the root of guarding and keeping watch. It links careful attention with protection: what you keep watch over is also what you keep from being carried away.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Watcher, guardian.
שֹׁמֵר
The watcher’s role makes the command’s attentiveness concrete: keeping the words in view is part of guarding them.
mishmeret: Charge, watch, or guard-duty.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
The verse treats what has been said as something entrusted to your keeping, not passing information.
תַזְכִּירוּ
tazkiru
GROWS FROM
זכר
Remember, call to mind.
The verb translated “make mention” grows from זָכַר (zakar), the root of remembering and bringing to mind. The word links what the mouth says with what the mind recalls; the object is a שֵׁם (shem: name, carrying nature), so the warning reaches beyond sound to what is given a place in attention.
ALSO GROWS
zikaron: Remembrance, memorial.
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial brings something into continuing remembrance, revealing how speech and memory can keep a name present.
hizkir: Mention, remind; cause to remember.
הִזְכִּיר
This related verb makes explicit the root’s movement from memory into speech: to mention is to bring something before awareness.
THE PATTERN
The text guards a single allegiance by refusing rival names a place in speech and rival powers a place in service.
That you not go in among these nations, these remaining among you; nor cause the name of their gods to be remembered, nor cause to swear by them, nor serve them, nor bow down to them.Their pains multiply, those who hurry after another god. I do not pour out their drink offerings of blood, nor lift their names upon my lips.No one can serve two masters, for he will either hate the one and love the other, or he will hold fast to one and look down on the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.THE THREAD
Their pains multiply, those who hurry after another god. I do not pour out their drink offerings of blood, nor lift their names upon my lips.Psalm 16:4 uses the same Hebrew word for name, שֵׁם (shem), and places those names directly on the lips. It opens Exodus’s warning further: the issue is what the mouth takes up and gives a place in speech.
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