What Does Exodus 4:28 Mean?
And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded 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 Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him.THE KEY
A message’s authority travels in what the sender gives: words to be heard and signs to be seen.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s commission reaches Aaron through Moses as a whole: words to be heard and signs to be seen. For you, the verse presents transmission as carrying what has been received, rather than inventing authority from the self. The message moves from sender to messenger to another person with its visible confirmation intact.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the message is only words, or that its messenger must generate his own proof: both the words and the signs are given by the sender.
THE ROOT
שְׁלָחוֹ
shelacho
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
sh-l-ḥ
To send forth, release, or extend outward.
“sent” in this verse is shelacho. The LORD is named as the one who sends Moses: the commission comes from a source and moves outward through a messenger. The same root carries the sense of release, so sending is not only dispatch but also letting something go from its source into the world.
ALSO GROWS
shilluaḥ: Sending away; release.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch makes the movement in “sent” visible: what is sent is released from its source and allowed to go outward.
Shiloach: Shiloah, the name of a water channel; connected with “sent.”
שִׁלֹחַ
The name evokes something sent from a source and carried outward, as the LORD’s words and signs are carried through Moses.
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
משׁה
m-sh-h
To draw out.
Moses’ name recalls being drawn out of the water, and here the drawn-out one carries the LORD’s words and signs outward to Aaron. His name holds both movements: being brought out and becoming a bearer of what is given.
ALSO GROWS
māshāh: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This is the verb behind Moses’ name, linking his identity to being drawn from the water.
Mosheh: Moses; the one drawn out.
מֹשֶׁה
The name brings his origin into this scene as he now carries a message to another person.
דִּבְרֵי
divrei
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; as a noun, a word, matter, or affair.
The root gathers speech and matter under one word: the “words” Moses tells Aaron are not empty sounds, but the substance of the commission. English separates speaking from what is spoken about; Hebrew lets the word hold both.
ALSO GROWS
dāvar: Word, matter, or affair.
דָּבָר
This noun shows how the message can be both spoken and substantive.
dibber: He spoke or uttered.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal form connects the words Moses carries with the act of telling Aaron.
THE PATTERN
A sender’s commission becomes shareable through a messenger who carries given words and visible signs.
And he said, Surely I will be with you, and this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.I raise up for them a prophet from among their brothers, like you, and I set my words in his mouth, and he speaks to them all that I command him.Then Jesus said to them again, Wholeness be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.THE THREAD
And he said, Surely I will be with you, and this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.The same root, שׁלח (shalach), names the LORD’s sending in both verses. Exodus 3:12 pairs that sending with a token; here Moses carries the words and signs of the commission to Aaron.
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