What Does Exodus 33:13 Mean in the King James?
Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.
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 uses the same root for “show me” and “that I may know you,” so the disclosed way is itself an entrance into knowing God.
THE MEANING
The repeated favor keeps the reader’s request within relationship: God’s way is sought so that God may be known. The plea also names a whole people as God’s own, holding this knowing within shared belonging.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that knowing God is only collecting facts about God; the verse ties knowing to the way God makes known.
THE ROOT
הוֹדִיעֵנִי
hōdîʿēnî
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
y-d-ʿ
To know, perceive, or recognize; in a causative form, to make known.
“shew / know” in this verse is hōdîʿēnî. “Shew me” (הוֹדִיעֵנִי, hōdîʿēnî, “make me know”) and “that I may know thee” (וְאֵדָעֲךָ, wəʾēdāʿăkā, “and I may know you”) are both forms of ידע (y-d-ʿ, “know, perceive”). The repeated root reveals the movement inside the request: God makes the way known, and that disclosure becomes knowing God.
ALSO GROWS
hōdîʿēnî: Cause me to know; make known to me.
הוֹדִיעֵנִי
This form makes the verse’s request an appeal for God to disclose what can be known.
daʿat: Knowledge or understanding.
דַּעַת
This noun keeps knowing connected to perception and recognition, not only information collected at a distance.
דַּרְכֶּךָ
darkekha
GROWS FROM
ד־ר־ך
d-r-k
To tread or march; a way is a trodden course.
The requested “way” is a route shaped by movement, not merely an abstract principle. The root gives the request a lived quality: God’s way is something made visible as a course to follow.
ALSO GROWS
derek: A way, path, or route.
דֶּרֶךְ
This is the verse’s word for the course Moses asks God to show.
dārak: To tread or march.
דָּרַךְ
The verb behind the noun pictures a way as ground traversed, giving “thy way” the sense of a lived course.
חֵן
ḥēn
GROWS FROM
ח־נ־ן
ḥ-n-n
To show or grant favor.
“grace / favor” in this verse is ḥēn. Favor appears both before and after the request to know God’s way. Its repetition places disclosure and knowing inside an ongoing relation of favor.
ALSO GROWS
ḥānan: To show or grant favor.
חָנַן
The verb names the favor that the verse says the reader has found in God’s sight.
ḥannûn: Gracious or characterized by favor.
חַנּוּן
This related form shows favor as a quality of the one who gives it, illuminating the relationship framing the request.
THE PATTERN
Knowing God unfolds through a disclosed way, making encounter rather than detached information the shape of knowledge.
Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.THE THREAD
Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.Psalm 25:4 pairs הוֹדִיעֵנִי (hōdîʿēnî, “make me know / show me”) with דְּרָכֶיךָ (dərāḵeyḵā, “your ways”), echoing Exodus through ידע (y-d-ʿ, “know, perceive”) and דרך (d-r-k, “way, trodden route”). The shared roots make the request sharper: being shown the way is also being made to know.
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