What Does Exodus 6:22 Mean?
And the sons of Uzziel were Mishael, and Elzaphan, and Zithri.
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 sons of Uzziel; Mishael, and Elzaphan, and Zithri.THE KEY
Elzaphan’s name can mean “God has hidden” or “God has treasured,” letting hiddenness carry the sense of being kept.
THE MEANING
Elzaphan’s name carries the sense “God has hidden” or “God has treasured.” What is out of sight can still be held in reserve; hidden does not have to mean lost.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that what is hidden is therefore lost or forgotten.
THE ROOT
אֱלִיצָפָן
ʾElṣāfān
GROWS FROM
צפן
To hide, conceal, or store up.
“Elzaphan” in this verse is ʾElṣāfān. The name combines אֵל (ʾEl, God) with צפן (ṣāpan, hide or store up), and is commonly understood as “God has hidden” or “God has treasured.” The root can describe both concealment and something laid up, holding out of sight and safekeeping together.
ALSO GROWS
tsaphan: To hide, treasure, or lay up.
צָפַן
Psalm 31:19 uses this root for goodness “laid up,” so hiddenness can mean value held in reserve.
tsafun: Hidden, concealed, or stored away.
צָפוּן
This form carries the same root into a state of being kept out of sight, echoing the sense often heard in Elzaphan’s name.
THE PATTERN
What is hidden can remain held in reserve, carrying value even while it is out of sight.
How great is your goodness, which you store up for those in awe of you, which you work for those who take shelter in you before the sons of men!My son, if you take hold of my words, and store my commands within you.Again, the governance of the heavens is like a treasure hidden in a field, which, when a man has found, he hides; and in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.THE THREAD
How great is your goodness, which you store up for those in awe of you, which you work for those who take shelter in you before the sons of men!Elzaphan’s name is commonly understood as “God has hidden” or “God has treasured,” from the root צפן (ṣāpan, hide or store up). Psalm 31:19 uses that same root for goodness “laid up,” opening the name into an image of goodness kept in reserve and still present.
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