What Does Exodus 30:11 Mean?
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
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 spake unto Moses, saying,THE KEY
The Hebrew root behind “spake” also gives the word for “matter,” so this speech is already the beginning of what will take shape.
THE MEANING
A word begins before its full shape is visible: the LORD speaks, Moses is addressed, and the instruction is about to unfold. For you, this verse names the moment when what comes next first arrives as an address.
THE ROOT
וַיְדַבֵּר
vayedabber
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
to speak, utter
“spake” in this verse is vayedabber. The root דבר gives both the verb for speaking and dāḇār, a word that can mean “word,” “matter,” or “thing.” Hebrew holds the utterance and the matter it brings into view within one root: this is speech with something taking shape inside it.
ALSO GROWS
dāḇār: word; matter; thing
דָּבָר
The instruction that follows is a spoken word and a matter coming into view.
medabbēr: speaking; one who speaks
מְדַבֵּר
This form keeps the focus on speech as an address reaching someone.
מֹשֶׁה
Mōsheh
GROWS FROM
משה
m-sh-h
to draw out
Moses’ name carries the sense of being drawn out, as the wordplay in Exodus 2:10 makes clear. Here, the address reaches the drawn-out one and begins the next matter.
ALSO GROWS
māšāh: to draw out
מָשָׁה
This is the root carried in Moses’ name.
mĕšîtîhû: I drew him out
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
Exodus 2:10 uses this form to explain the name, joining Moses to the act of being drawn out.
THE PATTERN
A divine utterance begins a concrete movement.
And the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they came out of the land of Egypt, saying,Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.THE THREAD
And the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they came out of the land of Egypt, saying,Numbers 1:1 repeats the same dabar verb before the people are counted. Together, the verses show the spoken matter unfolding into a concrete practice.
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