What Does Exodus 19:5 Mean in the King James?
Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
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 people are a particular treasure within a world that already belongs wholly to God.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you through a condition: hearing God’s voice responsively and guarding the covenant mark a particular belonging. That belonging is treasured, while the whole earth remains God’s.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the idea that being treasured means having a claim over the rest of the world: all the earth already belongs to God.
THE ROOT
שָׁמוֹעַ תִּשְׁמְעוּ
shamoa tishme'u
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, heed; hear responsively.
The Hebrew doubles the verb of hearing, giving the phrase an emphasis that English renders as “obey indeed.” Hearing here is responsive: the voice is received in a way that calls for an answer.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear and respond
שְׁמַע
This same root opens Deuteronomy’s call to hear, linking the voice in Exodus with a responsive act of listening.
shemuah: Report, what is heard
שְׁמוּעָה
The root also names a message received by hearing, keeping the voice and the listener joined.
וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם
u-shemartem
GROWS FROM
שמר
Watch over, guard, keep.
“keep” in this verse is u-shemartem. The verse places guarding beside responsive hearing. The roots שמע (shama, hear and respond) and שמר (shamar, guard) share their opening shin-mem sounds, echoing a movement from receiving the voice to keeping the covenant in view while remaining distinct roots.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Keeper, watchman
שֹׁמֵר
The keeper stays attentive to what has been entrusted, giving “keep my covenant” the feel of ongoing watchfulness.
mishmeret: Charge, guard duty
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch presents keeping as a responsibility held over time, not a single moment of compliance.
THE PATTERN
God’s claim encompasses all creation while a people are marked as a treasured possession within that whole.
A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.For the LORD hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:THE THREAD
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:The opening word שְׁמַע (shema, hear and respond) shares the שמע (shama, hear) root behind Exodus’s “obey my voice indeed.” Exodus emphasizes hearing the voice; Deuteronomy opens with the same responsive hearing named directly.
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