What Does Exodus 8:13 Mean?
And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courtyards, and out of the fields.
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 LORD did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “word” can also mean “matter” or “thing,” joining Moses’ spoken request to the frogs’ physical end.
THE MEANING
Moses’ word is followed by a concrete change: the frogs die across the houses, villages, and fields. The LORD acts; Moses’ word marks the measure of the response. The living infestation ends in these spaces.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that once a trouble fills every space, nothing can bring its hold to an end.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
The root is associated with speaking; the noun davar can mean a word, a matter, or a thing.
English separates speech from event, while davar can name both a word and a matter. The verse lets Moses’ spoken request and the physical change belong to one word-family, while keeping the LORD as the one who acts.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: He spoke
דִּבֵּר
This verbal form shows the spoken side of the root behind the word attributed to Moses.
devarim: Words, matters, or things
דְּבָרִים
This plural carries the root’s range from what is said to what is at issue.
מֹשֶׁה
Moshe
GROWS FROM
מ־שׁ־ה
Draw out, especially from water; Exodus links Moses’ name to being drawn from the water.
Moses’ name carries the image of being drawn out of water. Here, the one named for that emergence speaks, and the LORD brings the frogs’ hold on human spaces to an end.
ALSO GROWS
māšâ: To draw out
מָשָׁה
This verb appears in the biblical naming story that explains Moses’ name through his being drawn from the water.
Mōšeh: Moses, linked in the naming story to one drawn out
מֹשֶׁה
The name brings the image of emergence into the verse, where Moses’ word precedes the frogs’ end.
THE PATTERN
A voiced appeal is met with a visible change in the condition it names.
And the LORD heard and responded to the voice of Elijah, and the living soul of the child returned into him, and he lived.And Jesus said to the commander of a hundred, Go; as you have leaned your full weight, so let it be done for you. And his servant was healed in that same hour.THE THREAD
By the word of the LORD the heavens are made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.Both verses use davar, “word.” In Exodus, the LORD acts according to Moses’ word; here, the heavens are made by the LORD’s word, opening the root’s link between speech and what takes form.
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