What Does Exodus 7:6 Mean?
And Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded them, so they did.
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 Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded them, so did they.THE KEY
The doubled “did” shows that the answer to a command is action shaped to match it.
THE MEANING
Moses and Aaron act in the shape of the command, and the repeated “did” makes that correspondence plain. The verse speaks now wherever a word of direction moves from hearing into visible action.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that receiving a word of direction is already the same as answering it; here, the answer takes the form of what is done.
THE ROOT
עָשׂוּ
ʿāśû
GROWS FROM
עשה
ʿ-ś-h
to do, make, or bring about
The same verb appears twice: Moses and Aaron “did” what was commanded, and “so did they.” Its range of doing and making lets the verse show a received word taking shape in action.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāśâ: to do or make
עָשָׂה
This verb names the action that answers the command.
maʿăśeh: deed, work, or thing made
מַעֲשֶׂה
This branch makes visible the result of doing: an act or work brought into being.
צִוָּה
tsivvah
GROWS FROM
צוה
ṣ-w-h
to command, charge, or give direction
“commanded” in this verse is tsivvah. The command is a charge that calls for a corresponding act. Beside עשה, this root reveals the verse’s movement from direction given to action carried out.
ALSO GROWS
miṣwāh: commandment or command
מִצְוָה
This familiar branch keeps the sense of a charge or directive.
ṣav: command or order
צַו
This concise form shows the root’s direct sense of giving an order.
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
משה
m-š-h
to draw out, especially from water
Moses’ name carries the meaning “drawn out,” tied to the verb for drawing him from the water. That name-nature accompanies him here, while the verse’s main echo remains the match between command and deed.
ALSO GROWS
māšāh: to draw out
מָשָׁה
This is the verb behind the name’s explanation in Exodus 2:10.
mešîtihû: I drew him out
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
This form in the naming line makes the name’s water-rescue meaning explicit.
THE PATTERN
A received instruction becomes visible when the action takes its shape.
Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.As the LORD commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he did not remove one word of all that the LORD commanded Moses.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.Genesis 6:22 uses the same Hebrew roots for “did” (עשה) and “commanded” (צוה), in nearly the same phrase. Together, the verses reveal a recurring scriptural pattern: instruction takes visible form as action.
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