What Does Exodus 9:20 Mean?
He who stood in awe of the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses.
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
He that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses:THE KEY
Awe becomes shelter when the LORD’s word moves someone to bring the lives in their care out of danger.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s warning reaches you with real consequence: awe becomes a decision that brings those in your care under shelter. The verse shows practical protection arising from taking the word seriously before danger arrives.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that awe is only passive dread dissolves here: the one who honors the warning becomes a shelter for others.
THE ROOT
הַיָּרֵא
hayyārēʾ
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
Fear, stand in awe.
“stood in awe of” in this verse is hayyārēʾ. The fear here is directed toward the LORD’s word and becomes attentiveness with consequence, not a feeling sealed inside the hearer. This root also gives words for awe and what inspires awe, showing how the warning carries enough weight to redirect a household.
ALSO GROWS
yirʾah: Awe, reverence, fear.
יִרְאָה
This noun shows the inward regard carried by the hearer whose response becomes action.
nōrāʾ: Awe-inspiring, fearsome.
נוֹרָא
This branch echoes the weight of what is taken seriously in the LORD’s word.
דְּבַר
dĕvar
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak, utter; the related noun can mean a word or a matter.
“the word of the LORD” in this verse is dĕvar. The word is also a matter: the warning is not detached sound but something that reorganizes what the hearer does. English can make “word” feel abstract, while this shared root holds speech and consequential matter together.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, speech, matter, thing.
דָּבָר
This noun holds spoken message and real circumstance in the same semantic field.
dibbēr: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
The verb shows the action of speaking that stands behind the word the hearer responds to.
הֵנִיס
hēnīs
GROWS FROM
נוס
n-w-s
Flee, escape.
The verb is causative: the hearer makes his servants and cattle flee, so his response extends beyond himself to protect others. A branch of this root names refuge, tying escape directly to the movement toward shelter.
ALSO GROWS
nūs: Flee, escape.
נוּס
This is the basic movement the hearer sets in motion for those in his care.
mānōs: Refuge, escape.
מָנוֹס
This branch names the safety sought through flight, illuminating the houses as shelter.
THE PATTERN
A warning becomes protection when it is taken seriously enough to move vulnerable lives out of danger.
And he who did not set his heart to the word of the LORD left his servants and his cattle in the field.The shrewd one sees evil and hides himself; the open ones cross over and are punished.By trust Noah, warned of things not yet seen, moved with awe and built an ark for the deliverance of his house. Through it he judged against the world, and became an heir of the alignment that comes by trust.THE THREAD
And he who did not set his heart to the word of the LORD left his servants and his cattle in the field.Both verses use דְּבַר (dĕvar, word), from דבר (d-b-r), the root associated with speaking and matter. One hearer brings his household under shelter; the other leaves his in the field, showing the word’s force in what it moves the hearer to do.
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