What Does Exodus 31:1 Mean?

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

Exodus 31:1 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

THE KEY

The voice that addresses Moses meets a name that already carries the memory of being drawn out.

THE MEANING

You meet this verse at the threshold before the message unfolds: the LORD speaks, and Moses is named as the one addressed. His name carries the trace of being drawn out, so the address arrives within a life already marked by deliverance.

THE ROOT

מֹשֶׁה

Mosheh

GROWS FROM

משה

draw out, especially from water

Exodus 2:10 links Moses’ name to ⁨מָשָׁה⁩ (mashah, “draw out”) and ⁨מְשִׁיתִהוּ⁩ (meshitihu, “I drew him out”). Here, before the message unfolds, the one addressed bears a name that recalls being drawn out.

ALSO GROWS

mashah: to draw out

מָשָׁה

This verb connects Moses’ name to the act of being drawn from the water.

meshitihu: I drew him out

מְשִׁיתִהוּ

This form in Exodus 2:10 makes the name’s link to being drawn out explicit.

וַיְדַבֵּר

vayedabber

GROWS FROM

דבר

speak; the related noun carries the sense of word or matter

“spake” in this verse is vayedabber. The root ⁨דבר⁩ (d-b-r) connects speaking with ⁨דָּבָר⁩ (davar, “word, matter, thing”). English presents an act of speech, while Hebrew also holds the matter spoken within the same word-family.

ALSO GROWS

davar: word, matter, thing

דָּבָר

It shows that speech and the matter it carries share this root.

devarim: words, matters

דְּבָרִים

The plural keeps words and matters joined in the same family.

THE PATTERN

A divine address names a person before revealing the next movement.

And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him from the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am.

Exodus 3:4 · SDVThe voice calls Moses by name before the encounter proceeds.

And he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why do you pursue me?

Acts 9:4 · SDVThe voice names Saul before confronting him with the question that redirects him.

To him the gatekeeper opens, and the sheep hear and respond to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.

John 10:3 · SDVThe shepherd calls each one by name before leading them out.

THE THREAD

And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, the one drawn out, and she said, Because from the waters I drew him out.

Exodus 2:10 · SDV

Exodus 2:10 connects the name Moses to ⁨מָשָׁה⁩ (mashah, “draw out”) through the words “I drew him out.” When Exodus 31:1 names Moses as the one being addressed, that earlier drawing-out is still held inside his name.

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