What Does Exodus 7:2 Mean?
You shall speak all that I command you, and Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land.
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
Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land.THE KEY
The word rendered “send” carries the force of release, so the speech does not bargain over captivity; it names letting go as the demanded act.
THE MEANING
A word entrusted to one voice passes through another without losing its force. The command reaches the one holding the boundary and names release as its outcome. The verse makes the claim of ownership answerable to a word that calls people out.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that control creates an unquestionable right to keep people.
THE ROOT
וְשִׁלַּח
veshillach
GROWS FROM
שלח
shalach
To send or send forth; in a context of release, to let go.
“let the children of Israel go” in this verse is veshillach. Here, shalach means more than movement from one place to another: sending the people out means letting them go. Its branches keep both the messenger and the act of sending away within the same family of outward movement.
ALSO GROWS
shaliach: One sent; a messenger or emissary.
שָׁלִיחַ
Aaron speaks as one carrying a message onward, so the messenger and the demand for release share the root’s outward movement.
shaluach: Sent or dispatched.
שָׁלוּחַ
The people’s departure is framed as being sent out from the land where they are held.
יְדַבֵּר
yedabber
GROWS FROM
דבר
davar
To speak or utter.
“speak” in this verse is yedabber. The same root gives דָּבָר (davar), meaning “word” or “matter,” joining speech with what is spoken. Moses receives the charge, and Aaron carries it to Pharaoh through another voice.
ALSO GROWS
davar: A word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The spoken message is also a concrete word entrusted to be carried forward.
dibber: He spoke; to speak.
דִּבֵּר
This verb form makes the passage’s movement audible: the received charge becomes speech directed to Pharaoh.
אֲצַוֶּךָּ
atsavvekha
GROWS FROM
צוה
tsavah
To command, charge, or direct.
“command” in this verse is atsavvekha. The message Moses speaks is first a charge entrusted to him. The verse traces assigned speech from one speaker through another until it reaches Pharaoh.
ALSO GROWS
mitsvah: A commandment or prescribed instruction.
מִצְוָה
The branch shows command as instruction given to guide what follows.
tsav: A command or directive.
צַו
This direct form echoes the passage’s structure: speech is carried under a charge.
THE PATTERN
A spoken word becomes the instrument that opens a way out of what holds people.
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.The one who had died came out, his hands and feet bound in strips of cloth, and a cloth wrapped his face. Jesus said to them, Untie him, and let him go.THE THREAD
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.The shared root שלח (shalach, “send” or “release”) appears here as the direct demand, “Let my people go.” Exodus 7:2 shows that demand passing through Aaron’s voice until it reaches Pharaoh.
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