What Does Exodus 4:27 Mean?
And the LORD said to Aaron, Go to meet Moses in the wilderness. And he went and met him at the mountain of God, and kissed him.
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 to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him.THE KEY
The wilderness becomes a road to reunion: a divine summons brings Aaron to Moses, and their meeting opens with a kiss.
THE MEANING
A summons carries a person across a wilderness into a face-to-face encounter. At the mountain of God, the meeting opens in a kiss: recognition and affection arrive before another word is spoken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Distance means a bond is over; here, the wilderness becomes the way to reunion.
THE ROOT
לִקְרַאת
liqrat
GROWS FROM
קרא
To call out or summon.
English makes meeting sound like simple arrival; לִקְרַאת (liqrat, toward or to meet) carries the call-root, so Aaron’s movement toward Moses reads as a summoned encounter. The text gives that encounter a body in the kiss: what is called toward becomes personal recognition.
ALSO GROWS
qara: Call out, summon, proclaim.
קָרָא
The same root links the meeting to a call: the encounter begins with someone being sent toward another.
miqra: Assembly or convocation; those called together.
מִקְרָא
This branch shows how the call-root can gather people into shared presence, illuminating the reunion at the mountain.
מֹשֶׁה
Moshe
GROWS FROM
משה
Draw out, especially from water.
“Moses” in this verse is Moshe. Moshe (מֹשֶׁה, Moshe) means drawn out, carrying the memory of being brought through water into this reunion. Aaron is summoned toward the one whose name already holds a story of being drawn out.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: Draw out.
מָשָׁה
This verb is the seed behind Moses’ name and its meaning of being drawn out.
meshithihu: I drew him out.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
The naming scene in Exodus 2:10 makes the act personal: Moses is named through the act of drawing him from the water.
THE PATTERN
A call moves someone toward a face-to-face encounter and belonging.
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.And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, for your servant hears and responds.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.THE THREAD
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.The root קרא (qara, call out or summon) appears in God’s call to Moses here and in the word for Aaron going to meet him in Exodus 4:27. At the mountain where Moses first answers that call, he now arrives at a meeting that gathers him with Aaron; the call opens into relationship.
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