What Does Exodus 35:20 Mean?
And all the assembly of the children of Israel went out from the face of Moses.
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 all the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses.THE KEY
The hidden movement is from a presence that gathers a people to a shared action they carry beyond it.
THE MEANING
A meaningful encounter can continue in you after you leave the place where it happened. The whole assembly moves out from Moses together, and the next verse shows willing hearts turning that movement into shared work. What gathers you can travel with you.
THE ROOT
וַיֵּצְאוּ
wayyetse’u
GROWS FROM
יצא
yatsa
To go out, come out, or go forth.
“went out” in this verse is wayyetse’u. The verb carries movement from a place of gathering into what follows. Its root also names Israel’s going out from Egypt, giving this departure the shape of a communal passage.
ALSO GROWS
yetsi’ah: Going out; departure.
יְצִיאָה
This noun keeps the movement of יצא visible: departure is a passage into what comes next.
motsa: An exit, point of departure, or source.
מוֹצָא
The same root can name both the going out and the place something comes from, linking this assembly’s departure to the presence from which it moves.
מֹשֶׁה
Moshe
GROWS FROM
משׁה
mashah
To draw out or pull out.
Moses’ name is linked to the act of being drawn out of the water. The assembly now leaves the presence of the one whose name carries that movement of being brought out.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This is the action carried in Moses’ name, giving the point of departure a name tied to being brought out.
meshitihu: I drew him out (Exodus 2:10).
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
The name’s explanation in Exodus keeps the act of drawing out close to Moses himself.
THE PATTERN
A gathering becomes shared work when people leave with willing hearts and act together.
And they came, every one whose heart lifted him, and every one whom his breath made free-hearted, and they brought the LORD's lifted offering for the work of the tent of meeting, and for all its serving, and for the set-apart garments.And the multitude of those who trusted were of one heart and one living soul. Not one of them said that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared all things in common.For if the leaning heart is there first, it is well received according to what one has, and not according to what one does not have.THE THREAD
And it came to be at the end of four hundred and thirty years, and on this very bone of the day it came to be, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.The same root, יצא (yatsa, go out), names Israel’s departure from Egypt. Here it marks the assembly’s movement from Moses’ presence, letting this smaller departure echo the larger passage of a people going out together.
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