What Does Exodus 23:22 Mean in the King James?
But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.
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 Hebrew says “hear by hearing” where the KJV says “indeed obey”: obedience is hearing answered in action, and the LORD takes up the opposition facing the one who responds.
THE MEANING
The voice reaches you as something to answer in what you do. When you hear it and carry out what is spoken, the LORD stands against those who oppose you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must face opposition alone: the verse places the LORD against your adversaries when his voice is heard and carried out.
THE ROOT
שָׁמוֹעַ תִּשְׁמַע
shamoa tishma
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ע
To hear, listen, heed, and respond.
“indeed obey” in this verse is shamoa tishma. The doubled Hebrew form means, literally, “hearing, you shall hear,” intensifying the act of hearing. English separates hearing from obedience here, while the Hebrew keeps them joined: the voice is fully heard when it receives a response.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear; listen and heed.
שְׁמַע
This is the same root as the “obey” in this verse, and it opens Deuteronomy’s call, “Hear, O Israel.”
shemuah: A report, news, or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The voice in this verse is received as communication that calls for a response, not merely sound that passes by.
shomea: One who hears; a listener.
שֹׁמֵעַ
The root describes the listener as someone engaged in hearing, which fits the verse’s movement from hearing to doing.
צֹרְרֶיךָ
tsorerekha
GROWS FROM
צ־ר־ר
To bind or press; by extension, to vex or act with hostility.
The word translated “adversaries” comes from a root of binding or pressing, and it echoes צַר (tsar), “narrow” or “foe.” Hebrew lets opposition register as constriction; the verse makes that pressure something the LORD meets.
ALSO GROWS
tsarah: Distress, trouble, or straits.
צָרָה
This branch names the pressure experienced in adversity, linking the adversary with the distress that narrows a person’s way.
tseror: A bundle; something bound together.
צְרוֹר
The image of binding keeps the root’s physical force visible beneath the relational word “adversary.”
THE PATTERN
Hearing the divine voice takes shape in action, while the LORD takes up the opposition facing the one who responds.
Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:THE THREAD
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:The “obey” in Exodus and the “Hear” in this verse share the Hebrew root ש־מ־ע (sh-m-ʿ; shama). The same word-family shows that hearing and response belong together beneath the different English renderings.
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