What Does Exodus 5:3 Mean?
And they said, The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us go, we pray, three days' road into the wilderness, and slaughter to the LORD our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.
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 they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.THE KEY
The verse holds two kinds of encounter together: God’s call sends the speakers outward, while pestilence or sword may meet them as a blow.
THE MEANING
The God who meets the reader is also feared as one who may strike with pestilence or sword. The requested three-day journey into the desert makes sacrifice the answer, binding encounter, movement, and danger together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that meeting God is only comforting or consequence-free: here the encounter is bound to departure, sacrifice, and the fear of being struck.
THE ROOT
נִקְרָא
niqra
GROWS FROM
קרא
q-r-ʾ
Call out, proclaim, or name.
The English “met” presents a meeting; Hebrew niqra carries the seed of being called or named. The encounter arrives as a summons, and the next words give that summons a direction: go out and sacrifice.
ALSO GROWS
qara: Call, summon, or name.
קָרָא
The meeting carries the sense of a call that sets the request in motion.
miqra: A convocation or assembly.
מִקְרָא
A call can gather people into a shared response; here the encounter becomes a collective request for a journey and sacrifice.
יִפְגָּעֵנוּ
yifgaʿenu
GROWS FROM
פגע
p-g-ʿ
Meet, encounter, or reach; in forceful contexts, strike.
The KJV’s “fall upon” preserves the force of collision: this root can describe an encounter or intercession, but here it is attached to pestilence and sword. The danger named is a violent meeting with those who ask to go.
ALSO GROWS
paga: Meet, encounter, or strike.
פָּגַע
This root gives the feared event its force: the encounter arrives as a blow.
yafgiʿa: Intercede or make entreaty.
יַפְגִּיעַ
Isaiah uses this same root for intercession, showing that it can describe reaching toward another as well as being struck; here the setting makes the encounter threatening.
הָעִבְרִים
haʿivrim
GROWS FROM
עבר
ʿ-b-r
Cross or pass over.
The name “Hebrews” carries the seed עבר (ʿavar), “to cross over.” In a verse full of movement, go, make a three-day journey into the desert, that identity echoes a people whose name holds crossing within it.
ALSO GROWS
ʿavar: Cross, pass over, or move through.
עָבַר
The root beneath “Hebrews” carries movement across a boundary, echoing the request to go out.
ʿever: The other side or beyond.
עֵבֶר
The word for “beyond” shares this root, adding the sense of crossing from one side into another to the people’s name.
THE PATTERN
A divine encounter becomes a summons into movement and concrete response, sometimes under danger or reproach.
And they shall hear and respond to your voice. Then you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you shall say to him, The LORD God of the Hebrews has met with us. And now let us go, please, a three days' road into the wilderness, that we may slaughter to the LORD our God.And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here I am; send me.So let us go out to him, outside the camp, bearing his insult.THE THREAD
And they shall hear and respond to your voice. Then you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you shall say to him, The LORD God of the Hebrews has met with us. And now let us go, please, a three days' road into the wilderness, that we may slaughter to the LORD our God.Exodus 3:18 uses the same phrase, נִקְרָא עָלֵינוּ (niqra aleinu), “hath met with us,” from קרא (qara), “call.” The echo ties the requested journey and sacrifice directly to the encounter, making the journey part of what that meeting means.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us