What Does Genesis 34:20 Mean?
And Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city, and spoke with the men of their city, saying,
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 Hamor and Shechem his son came unto the gate of their city, and communed with the men of their city, saying,THE KEY
The verb translated “communed” comes from דָּבַר (dābar, “to speak”), whose branch דָּבָר (davar, “word” and “matter”) makes their speech itself a public matter.
THE MEANING
A matter changes scale when it is spoken before a community: what two people hold now stands among the city’s men. The gate is the threshold where words enter shared life, and the community is asked to hear them.
THE ROOT
וַיְדַבְּרוּ
waydabbĕrû
GROWS FROM
דבר
Speak, utter, converse.
“spoke with” in this verse is waydabbĕrû. The verb וַיְדַבְּרוּ (waydabbĕrû, “they spoke”) belongs to דָּבַר (dābar, “to speak”). Its noun branch דָּבָר (davar, “word; matter”) joins language to the matter under discussion, so these words enter public life as something the city must hear.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, speech, matter, thing.
דָּבָר
This noun grows from the same root and can refer both to words and to the matter being discussed, binding speech to its subject.
medabber: Speaking; one who speaks.
מְדַבֵּר
This form keeps the root active: speech is an act directed to hearers, as Hamor and Shechem address the city’s men.
THE PATTERN
When a matter is spoken before a community, it enters the community’s shared judgment.
And Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city, and spoke with the men of their city, saying,Then Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the kinsman of whom Boaz had spoken came by, and Boaz said to him, Ho, such a one! Turn aside, sit here. And he turned aside and sat there.Then the whole crowd kept silence, and listened to Barnabas and Paul, telling what signs and wonders God had made among the nations by them.THE THREAD
But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.Genesis uses וַיְדַבְּרוּ (waydabbĕrû, “they spoke”), from דָּבַר (dābar, “speak”); Deuteronomy uses הַדָּבָר (haddābār, “the word, the matter”), from the same root. The shared family links speech at the city gate with words held in the mouth and heart, then carried into doing.
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