What Does Exodus 34:10 Mean in the King James?
And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.
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 covenant takes visible form in wonders so far beyond the ordinary that an entire people sees them together.
THE MEANING
The covenant reaches you through work made visible among a people; it is not only a promise spoken in private. The marvels exceed what can be treated as ordinary, and the act carries fearsome awe. You are inside the witness: the work happens among you, and you see it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a covenant is only an invisible promise: here, its work is seen among the people.
THE ROOT
נִפְלָאוֹת
nifla'ot
GROWS FROM
פלא
To be extraordinary or marvelous, beyond ordinary measure.
“marvels” in this verse is nifla'ot. The Hebrew word points to acts that exceed the familiar, not merely events that surprise. The verse joins that extraordinariness to public witness: the people see the work among them.
ALSO GROWS
pele: Wonder; an extraordinary thing.
פֶּלֶא
This same root appears in Exodus 15:11, where the LORD is praised for doing wonders.
hiphli': To do wonderfully; to act extraordinarily.
הִפְלִיא
This verb form echoes the promise to do marvels, showing the word carries the action of making the extraordinary manifest.
נוֹרָא
nora
GROWS FROM
ירא
To fear or stand in awe.
The root holds fear and awe together, so “terrible” carries more than modern English’s sense of bad or unpleasant. The deed remains fearsome: its scale overwhelms casual familiarity.
ALSO GROWS
yare: To fear; to stand in awe.
יָרֵא
The verb makes the response to the work part of the verse’s meaning: the act inspires fear and awe.
yir'ah: Fear; awe.
יִרְאָה
This noun shows the response is not mere admiration but a trembling recognition of what is beyond ordinary measure.
THE PATTERN
A people become witnesses when extraordinary works are done among them and seen with their own eyes.
Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?A Psalm. O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:THE THREAD
Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?Both verses use פלא (pala’), meaning “to be extraordinary,” for the wonders the LORD does. The work promised in Exodus 34:10 is the same wonder that Exodus 15:11 gives voice to in praise.
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