What Does Exodus 40:1 Mean?
The LORD spoke to Moses, 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 the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,THE KEY
In Hebrew, the root behind “spake” also names a matter or thing, so what is about to take form begins as an utterance.
THE MEANING
You meet this verse at the threshold of an instruction: the LORD speaks, and its content is just opening. Moses, whose name carries “drawn out,” receives that word as one already marked by being brought forth from water.
THE ROOT
וַיְדַבֵּר
vayedabber
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak or utter; its related noun means word, matter, or thing.
English can make “spake” sound like speech alone, but this root also gives a word for a matter or thing. The utterance is where the matter begins to enter the scene, even as its full content waits just beyond this verse.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The same root links spoken words with the matter they name, so the LORD’s speech is already the beginning of what follows.
dibber: Spoke, declared, or addressed.
דִּבֵּר
This verb form places the LORD’s act of speaking at the opening of the passage.
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
משה
m-sh-h
To draw out.
The name Moses carries the sense of being drawn out, recalling the verse that explains his name through his being drawn from the water. Here the one who receives the word is already marked by that nature of being brought forth.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This is the verb behind the name’s stated meaning.
meshitihu: I drew him out.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
This form appears in the explanation of Moses’ name and makes “drawn out” part of the name’s own story.
לֵאמֹר
le'mor
GROWS FROM
אמר
ʾ-m-r
To say or utter.
The verse places “saying” after “spake,” holding the reader at the edge of the words that are about to be spoken. The passage is a doorway: the speech is announced before its content unfolds.
ALSO GROWS
amar: To say.
אָמַר
This verb supplies the root of “saying,” the phrase that opens the coming words.
imrah: Utterance or saying.
אִמְרָה
This noun shows the root extending from the act of saying to the utterance itself.
THE PATTERN
In scripture, what is to take form first arrives as a word spoken before it is seen.
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.For he says, and it comes to be; he commands, and it stands.By trust we perceive that the ages were fitted together by the word of God, so that what is seen did not come out of what appears.THE THREAD
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram. I am your shield, and your very great wages.Both verses place the LORD’s speech at the threshold of what follows: here it opens the words ahead, and there the LORD’s word arrives before its promise. The shared root links speech with the matter it carries into view.
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