What Does Exodus 6:5 Mean?
And I have also heard and responded to the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians make serve, and I have remembered my covenant.
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 I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant.THE KEY
God remembers the covenant while bondage still holds; the remembered bond is present before the conditions change.
THE MEANING
When you groan under what holds you, the verse says your cry is heard while the bond remains. God’s remembrance keeps the covenant present in the middle of that distress.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that your groaning must go unheard or be forgotten until your circumstances change.
THE ROOT
וָאֶזְכֹּר
va'ezkor
GROWS FROM
זכר
Remember; call to mind and keep in remembrance.
Here, remembrance follows the hearing of groaning and sits beside the covenant, so it reads as covenant held in active regard, not bare recollection. The same root gives words for remembrance and memorial: what is remembered is kept present.
ALSO GROWS
zikaron: Remembrance; memorial.
זִכָּרוֹן
It shows remembrance as something held in view, giving depth to the covenant God remembers.
zeker: Memorial; remembrance; mention.
זֵכֶר
This branch links remembering with keeping something present through its memorial.
מַעֲבִדִים
ma'avdim
GROWS FROM
עבד
Work; serve.
“make serve” in this verse is ma'avdim. The Hebrew verb is built on avad, “serve” or “work”: the bondage here takes the form of service imposed by Egypt. The same root names both a servant and work or service, exposing forced labor within the word for bondage.
ALSO GROWS
eved: Servant; one who serves.
עֶבֶד
It shows the person placed under the service imposed in the verse.
avodah: Work; service.
עֲבֹדָה
It reveals the labor at the heart of the bondage.
שָׁמַעְתִּי
shama'ti
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear; listen, with heed or response where the context carries it.
“heard and responded to” in this verse is shama'ti. English “heard” can sound like sound reaching an ear; this root can also carry attentive listening. Here, the next clause joins that hearing to remembered covenant, so the groaning is received as something that matters.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
It shows how hearing can include a response when the context implies one.
shemuah: Report; news; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
It connects the root to what is received and taken in through hearing.
THE PATTERN
Covenant remembrance keeps a people in view through distress and becomes help.
And God heard and responded to their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.He remembers his covenant for the ages, the word he commanded to a thousand generations.He has taken hold of Israel his servant, to remember his faithful love.THE THREAD
And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark, and God caused a breath to cross over the earth, and the waters settled.The same zakar root (זכר, “remember”) appears here. Remembrance is followed by wind moving over the earth and the waters subsiding, placing it at the hinge where an ongoing condition begins to change.
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