What Does Exodus 3:17 Mean?
And I have said, I will bring you up out of the bending low in Egypt, to the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.
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 I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.THE KEY
The way out of affliction is an ascent into flow: the destination is defined by what can pour forth.
THE MEANING
Affliction narrows your world, but this verse speaks of being brought up out of Egypt’s constriction and into a place defined by flow. The destination is more than the absence of pain; it is room for what sustains life to pour forth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Affliction is the final shape of your life, and deliverance means only getting away from it.
THE ROOT
אַעֲלֶה
ʾaʿăleh
GROWS FROM
ע־ל־ה
ʿ-l-h
To go up or ascend; in this verb form, to bring or raise up.
אַעֲלֶה is a causative form: “I will bring you up.” Its root also names ascent itself and an ascending offering, so release is pictured as a change in elevation, not merely a change of address.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: To go up, ascend.
עָלָה
This is the root verb: the movement of being brought up begins with the same idea as ascending.
ʿōlāh: Ascending offering; burnt offering.
עֹלָה
The offering’s name carries the image of something rising, echoing the verse’s upward movement.
maʿălāh: Ascent, step, or upward slope.
מַעֲלָה
This branch makes the root’s upward direction concrete: the way out is a rise.
זָבַת
zāvat
GROWS FROM
ז־ו־ב
z-w-b
To flow, gush, or issue forth.
“flowing” in this verse is zāvat. The land is described by what flows from it: milk and honey. This root also names an issuing flow, so the phrase pictures sustenance moving freely rather than being held back.
ALSO GROWS
zōv: A flow or discharge.
זֹב
This noun makes the root’s central image explicit: something issuing forth.
zāv: Flowing; one experiencing an issue or discharge.
זָב
This form shows the same root describing an active state of flow.
THE PATTERN
Release from constriction carries life toward spaciousness where what sustains can flow.
And I have come down to snatch them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land into a good and wide land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.And the LORD shall lead you continually, and fill your living soul in the parched places, and strengthen your bones. You shall be like a drenched garden, and like a spring of water whose waters never fail.The one who leans his weight into me, as the writing has said, rivers of living waters will flow from his belly.THE THREAD
But those who wait upon the LORD exchange their strength; they rise on wings like eagles; they run and do not tire; they walk and do not faint.“Bring you up” and “mount up” share the Hebrew root עלה (ʿ-l-h), meaning to ascend or go up. Exodus pictures ascent out of constriction into flow; Isaiah gives that same upward movement wings.
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