What Does Exodus 35:4 Mean in the King James?
And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the LORD commanded, saying,
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
Here, “thing” is the Hebrew word for both a word and a matter: the LORD’s command is spoken into the shared life of the assembly.
THE MEANING
The command reaches the whole assembly through a human voice. The word translated “thing” is dābār (דָּבָר, word or matter), holding together what is spoken and the matter placed before those who hear it. Mōsheh (מֹשֶׁה, drawn out) is the voice carrying that word into the gathering now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The LORD’s command is private information meant for only a few.
THE ROOT
הַדָּבָר
ha-dābār
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
A word or matter; something spoken or dealt with.
English “thing” can sound inert, but dābār (דָּבָר, word or matter) also names a word. The language lets the command be both what is spoken and the matter placed before the assembly.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This is the word in the verse, carrying both the command’s speech and its subject matter.
dibbēr: To speak.
דִּבֵּר
This verb shares the root, linking the act of speaking with the word or matter being spoken.
dəvārīm: Words or matters.
דְּבָרִים
The plural keeps the same range of meaning: words can also be matters.
מֹשֶׁה
Mōsheh
GROWS FROM
משה
m-sh-h
To draw out, especially from water.
“Moses” in this verse is Mōsheh. Mōsheh (מֹשֶׁה, drawn out) carries the memory of being drawn from water. Here, the one whose name holds that emergence voices the LORD’s command to the whole people.
ALSO GROWS
māshāh: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This is the verb behind the name’s meaning.
Mōsheh: Drawn out.
מֹשֶׁה
The name preserves the image of a life brought out of water.
THE PATTERN
A word attributed to the LORD moves through a speaker into the hearing of a people.
(I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to shew you the word of the LORD: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount;) saying,And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the LORD.For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.THE THREAD
Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.Jeremiah’s “my words,” dəvāray (דְּבָרַי, my words), shares the d-b-r root with “thing” in Exodus 35:4. Moses carries the LORD’s commanded matter to the assembly; Jeremiah receives the LORD’s words in his mouth, showing the same word-family moving through a human voice.
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