What Does Exodus 9:1 Mean?
Then the LORD said to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh, and say to him, Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews. Let my people go, that they may serve me.
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
Then the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.THE KEY
“Let go” also means “send forth”: release carries the people from Pharaoh’s claim into service to the LORD.
THE MEANING
This word meets the place where another power has narrowed your life: release opens a way toward service to the LORD. Freedom here moves from constriction into a different belonging, rather than toward an empty destination. “My people” names the relationship before the release happens.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that freedom means belonging to no one: release from Pharaoh’s claim opens into service to the LORD.
THE ROOT
שַׁלַּח
shallach
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send, release, or let go.
“Let my people go” in this verse is shallach. English “let go” can sound like permission simply to depart, while this imperative also means to send forth. The people are released toward a destination, and the verse names that destination as serving the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
Shiloach: Sent, or sending.
שִׁלֹחַ
The name of the pool where a man washes and receives sight (John 9:7) carries this same movement of sending forth.
mishloach: A sending, delivery, or portion sent.
מִשְׁלוֹחַ
This branch shows release as movement outward: what is sent leaves the hand that held it and reaches its destination.
יַעַבְדֻנִי
ya’avduni
GROWS FROM
עבד
Work or serve.
“serve me” in this verse is ya’avduni. The word rendered “serve” belongs to the root that also names labor and a servant, so freedom here is not the end of all service. The change is whose claim directs that service.
ALSO GROWS
avodah: Work, labor, or service.
עֲבוֹדָה
It reveals the work contained in “serve me”: release redirects the people’s labor toward the LORD.
eved: A servant or worker.
עֶבֶד
This branch makes the change of allegiance plain: the verse names who is released and whom they now serve.
מֹשֶׁה
Moshe
GROWS FROM
משה
Draw out; in Exodus 2:10, Moses is named as one drawn out of the water.
Moses’s name carries the sense “drawn out.” The one whose name holds a rescue by drawing out now carries the command for a people to be drawn out from constriction.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out, especially from water.
מָשָׁה
The verb behind the name echoes the movement from being held to being brought out.
Moshe: The one drawn out.
מֹשֶׁה
His name’s nature mirrors the work he carries here: announcing release for a people still held.
THE PATTERN
Release breaks one power’s claim and redirects the released life toward service to God.
And he said, Surely I will be with you, and this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.The breath of the Lord LORD is upon me, for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the bowed ones; he has sent me to bind up the broken of heart, to proclaim flowing freedom to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are chained.Then, unbound from falling short, you became bound servants of alignment.THE THREAD
The breath of the Lord LORD is upon me, for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the bowed ones; he has sent me to bind up the broken of heart, to proclaim flowing freedom to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are chained.The Hebrew root שָׁלַח (shalach, send or release) underlies “let go” here and “hath sent me” in Isaiah. Release travels through a messenger and arrives as liberty for those held captive.
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