What Does Exodus 4:15 Mean?
And you will speak to him, and set the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth, and with his mouth, and I will instruct you both in what you will do.
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 thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do.THE KEY
The promise is not merely that words arrive: the “I will be” is with both mouths as speech becomes action.
THE MEANING
Your words are not sealed inside one person: you place them in another’s mouth, and the same presence attends both mouths. The instruction reaches beyond what to say toward what you will do, so shared speech leads into shared action.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that the message is a private burden one speaker must produce and carry alone; the words are shared, and presence accompanies both speakers.
THE ROOT
אֶהְיֶה
ehyeh
GROWS FROM
היה
h-y-h
Be, become, come to pass.
“I will be with your mouth” uses ehyeh, the same first-person form used in Exodus 3:14. Here that being is present with both speakers, not only with the one who first receives the words.
ALSO GROWS
hayah: Be, become, happen.
הָיָה
This is the verb family behind the promise that God will be with both mouths.
vayehi: And it was; and it came to pass.
וַיְהִי
This common form also comes from the same root, describing what comes to be.
ehyeh: I am; I will be.
אֶהְיֶה
This is the form in the promise of presence here and in God’s self-declaration in Exodus 3:14.
הַדְּבָרִים
hadevarim
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak, declare; also word, matter, or thing.
Hebrew uses the same root for speaking and for the words placed in Aaron’s mouth. English can make speech and its content feel separate, while this shared root binds the utterance to the matter that leads into what the two will do.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, thing.
דָּבָר
This noun names both what is spoken and the matter being spoken about.
dibber: Spoke; speak or declare.
דִּבֶּר
This verb shares its root with the words Moses places in Aaron’s mouth.
medabber: Speaking; one who speaks.
מְדַבֵּר
This form keeps the speaker connected to the same root as the words themselves.
וְהוֹרֵיתִי
vehoreiti
GROWS FROM
ירה
y-r-h
Direct, instruct; this form means teach.
“instruct you both in what you will do” in this verse is vehoreiti. The teaching here is not only about producing a sentence; it extends to what the two are to do. The root’s instruction reaches from speech into action.
ALSO GROWS
torah: Instruction, teaching.
תּוֹרָה
Torah comes from this root family, showing the link between teaching and instruction.
moreh: Teacher, instructor.
מוֹרֶה
This word names one who teaches from the same root as the verb in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Words entrusted to a mouth are accompanied by presence that teaches the speaker what follows.
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.For the Set-Apart Breath will teach you in that very hour what you must say.THE THREAD
And now go, and I will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what you will speak.The promise in Exodus 4:12 uses the same roots for “I will be” and “teach” that appear in this verse. Here the promise widens from Moses’ mouth to Aaron’s too, and from what Moses will say to what both will do.
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