What Does Exodus 35:4 Mean?
And Moses spoke to all the assembly of the children of Israel, saying, This is the word that the LORD commanded, 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 Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the LORD commanded, saying,THE KEY
Here, “thing” is the Hebrew word for both a word and a matter: the LORD’s command is spoken into the shared life of the assembly.
THE MEANING
The command reaches the whole assembly through a human voice. The word translated “thing” is dābār (דָּבָר, word or matter), holding together what is spoken and the matter placed before those who hear it. Mōsheh (מֹשֶׁה, drawn out) is the voice carrying that word into the gathering now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The LORD’s command is private information meant for only a few.
THE ROOT
הַדָּבָר
ha-dābār
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
A word or matter; something spoken or dealt with.
English “thing” can sound inert, but dābār (דָּבָר, word or matter) also names a word. The language lets the command be both what is spoken and the matter placed before the assembly.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This is the word in the verse, carrying both the command’s speech and its subject matter.
dibbēr: To speak.
דִּבֵּר
This verb shares the root, linking the act of speaking with the word or matter being spoken.
dəvārīm: Words or matters.
דְּבָרִים
The plural keeps the same range of meaning: words can also be matters.
מֹשֶׁה
Mōsheh
GROWS FROM
משה
m-sh-h
To draw out, especially from water.
“Moses” in this verse is Mōsheh. Mōsheh (מֹשֶׁה, drawn out) carries the memory of being drawn from water. Here, the one whose name holds that emergence voices the LORD’s command to the whole people.
ALSO GROWS
māshāh: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This is the verb behind the name’s meaning.
Mōsheh: Drawn out.
מֹשֶׁה
The name preserves the image of a life brought out of water.
THE PATTERN
A word attributed to the LORD moves through a speaker into the hearing of a people.
I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to show you the word of the LORD, for you were afraid before the face of the fire, and did not go up into the mountain, saying,And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah, and those who settle in Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small. And he read in their ears all the words of the scroll of the covenant that was found in the house of the LORD.And for this reason we also thank God without leaving a gap. For when you took hold of the word of God that you heard from us, you received it not as the word of humankind, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you who trust.THE THREAD
Then the LORD stretched out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, Look, I have set my words in your mouth.Jeremiah’s “my words,” dəvāray (דְּבָרַי, my words), shares the d-b-r root with “thing” in Exodus 35:4. Moses carries the LORD’s commanded matter to the assembly; Jeremiah receives the LORD’s words in his mouth, showing the same word-family moving through a human voice.
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