What Does Exodus 34:27 Mean?
And the LORD said to Moses, Write these words for yourself, for according to the mouth of these words I have cut a covenant with you and with Israel.
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, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.THE KEY
The Hebrew says the covenant was “cut” according to the mouth of these words, so the words give the covenant its shape, not merely a record of it.
THE MEANING
You meet covenant here as something given definite shape by words: what is spoken is written, and the bond is cut according to those words. The Hebrew phrase “according to the mouth of these words” keeps speech at the center, with writing carrying it forward.
THE ROOT
כָּרַתִּי
karatti
GROWS FROM
כרת
To cut; to cut off.
“cut a covenant” in this verse is karatti. The verb translated “made” is literally “cut”: Hebrew speaks of cutting a covenant. The English smooths over that image, while the Hebrew keeps the covenant’s making joined to the act of cutting.
ALSO GROWS
karat: To cut or cut off.
כָּרַת
This is the root verb behind “made,” preserving the concrete image beneath the translation.
karat berit: To cut a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
This Hebrew expression shows that covenant-making is spoken of through the same verb as cutting.
הַדְּבָרִים
ha-devarim
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; a word or matter.
The Hebrew word for “words” belongs to a root that also means “matter” or “thing.” Here the spoken words are not detached from the covenant’s substance: they are the terms according to which it is cut.
ALSO GROWS
davar: A word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
Its range joins what is said with the matter at hand, making the covenant’s words substantial rather than incidental.
dibber: He spoke.
דִּבֶּר
The verse begins with the LORD speaking, then commands Moses to write the words that have been spoken.
מֹשֶׁה
Moshe
GROWS FROM
משה
To draw out.
“Moses” in this verse is Moshe. The verse entrusts the writing to Moshe, whose name the text connects with being drawn out of water. The one named “drawn out” now carries these words into written form.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This is the verb associated with Moshe’s name and its meaning.
meshitihu: I drew him out.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
Exodus 2:10 uses this form in the naming explanation that connects Moshe with being drawn out of the water.
THE PATTERN
Covenant takes definite form through words that are spoken, written, heard, and sealed.
These are the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to cut with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant that he cut with them in Horeb.And he took the scroll of the covenant, and called it out in the ears of the people, and they said, All that the LORD has said we will do, and we will hear and respond.saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded you."THE THREAD
On that day the LORD cut a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.The same Hebrew verb behind “made” here, כרת (karat, “cut”), appears in the covenant with Abram. In both verses the covenant is cut, an image the English rendering “made” leaves quiet.
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