What Does Exodus 19:25 Mean in the King James?
So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The same Hebrew verb describes the LORD descending onto Sinai and Moses descending to the people, making Moses’s speech the human echo of God’s approach.
THE MEANING
What is encountered at a height does not remain remote; it comes down into speech among the people. The word becomes audible within their shared life.
THE ROOT
יָרַד
yarad
GROWS FROM
ירד
To go down or descend.
“went down” in this verse is yarad. This is the same root used for the LORD’s descent onto Sinai in Exodus 19:20. The repeated motion links Moses’s descent with the approach that makes the encounter speak among the people.
ALSO GROWS
yeridah: Descent
יְרִידָה
The noun makes clear that going down is a movement from height toward a lower place, as Moses moves toward the people.
Yarden: Jordan, traditionally understood as “the descender”
יַרְדֵּן
The river’s name is associated with yarad; its downward course echoes the movement at the center of this verse.
מֹשֶׁה
Moshe
GROWS FROM
משה
To draw out.
Exodus 2:10 links Moses’s name with being drawn out of water. Here the one drawn out goes down toward the people, holding two directions together: being drawn out and descending.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out
מָשָׁה
This verb is the root behind the name Moses and gives the name its nature of being drawn out.
meshithihu: I drew him out (Exodus 2:10)
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
The verse naming Moses explicitly connects his name to the act of drawing out.
THE PATTERN
God’s word comes within human reach by becoming near, embodied, and hearable.
But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.THE THREAD
And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.The same Hebrew root, ירד (yarad), names the LORD’s coming down and Moses’s going down. That repeated motion makes Moses’s speech a continuation of the descent that brings the encounter within reach of the people.
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