What Does Deuteronomy 9:10 Mean in the King James?

And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

Deuteronomy 9:10 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The words God speaks and the words written into stone are one and the same word.

THE MEANING

What is spoken is held on a surface, and what is written carries those words beyond the moment of speaking. The verse presents the words as something given and marked, emerging from fire in a form that can be held and read. Voice and inscription meet in the same words.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the belief that a spoken word must disappear when the moment passes.

THE ROOT

דְּבָרִים

devarim

GROWS FROM

דבר

D-B-R

Word, matter; speak.

“words / spake” in this verse is devarim. The words written on the tablets and the words the LORD spoke belong to the same root family. The verse holds speech and its content together: what is inscribed carries the very word that was spoken.

ALSO GROWS

davar: Word, matter, thing.

דָּבָר

The written words are not detached marks; they carry the matter spoken.

dibber: Spoke.

דִּבֵּר

This is the speaking action named in the verse, joined by the root to the words that are written.

כְּתֻבִים

ketuvim

GROWS FROM

כתב

K-T-B

Write, inscribe.

The verse describes the words as written, giving speech a visible and lasting form. The same root names both the act of writing and what writing leaves behind.

ALSO GROWS

katav: To write.

כָּתַב

This is the verb behind the inscription on the tablets.

mikhtav: Writing, letter, inscription.

מִכְתָּב

This related word names writing as a thing that can be kept and read.

וַיִּתֵּן

vayitten

GROWS FROM

נתן

N-T-N

Give, set, place.

“delivered” in this verse is vayitten. The Hebrew verb says that the LORD gave the tablets. The root also carries the sense of placing, so the verse presents the words as something given into human hands, already inscribed.

ALSO GROWS

natan: To give, set, place.

נָתַן

This is the verb used for the LORD’s giving of the tablets.

mattanah: Gift.

מַתָּנָה

This related form makes the given tablets legible as something received.

THE PATTERN

What God speaks is given a durable form that can be received again.

And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

Exodus 31:18 · KJVThe spoken encounter takes written form on stone, again described as written by God’s finger.

Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.

Jeremiah 30:2 · KJVThe words spoken by the LORD are carried into writing so they can be read again.

Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

2 Corinthians 3:3 · KJVThe image of divine writing moves from stone to the heart, while the words remain something written by God.

THE THREAD

And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

Deuteronomy 6:6 · KJV

The word for words in both verses is ⁨דְּבָרִים⁩ (devarim, words), from ⁨דָּבָר⁩ (davar, word or matter). Here the words are written on stone; there, those same words are in the heart.

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