What Does Exodus 13:5 Mean in the King James?

And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month.
Exodus 13:5 · 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 promised land is named as God’s gift before the people are told to serve, so their service becomes remembrance of what they have received.

God’s bringing and giving come before the service. The service keeps deliverance present as the people enter a land of abundance. The verse holds receiving and remembrance together: what you inhabit is not severed from the passage that brought you there.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the belief that service buys access to God’s gift; here, the LORD brings and gives before the service is kept.

עֲבֹדָה

ʿavodah

GROWS FROM

עבד

ʿ-b-d

to work or serve

The Hebrew pairs ⁨עָבַד⁩ (ʿāvad, serve) with ⁨עֲבֹדָה⁩ (ʿavodah, service): literally, “you shall serve the service.” The repeated root makes the practice echo its own source, marking it as a continuing remembrance after the gift has been received.

ALSO GROWS

ʿāvad: To serve or work.

עָבַד

The verb is the action the people are told to carry out; its shared root with “service” makes the instruction echo the practice itself.

ʿeved: A servant or worker.

עֶבֶד

This branch connects service to the one who serves, showing the root spans both the act and the person engaged in it.

A received gift becomes a practice of remembrance, not a wage earned by work.

And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.
Exodus 12:25 · KJVThe service is kept after arrival in the land the LORD gives, linking the practice to a received promise.
And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.
Joshua 24:13 · KJVThe land and its abundance are given without the people having earned them by their labor.
And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
1 Corinthians 11:24 · KJVThe given gift is carried forward through a repeated act of remembrance.
And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.
Exodus 12:25 · KJV

This verse repeats the same service language as Exodus 13:5 and places it after arrival in the land the LORD gives. Together, the verses connect the recurring service with receiving the promised gift.

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Exodus 13:5 KJV Meaning