What Does Leviticus 10:11 Mean?
And that you may point the children of Israel to all the statutes which the LORD has spoken to them by the hand of Moses.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses.THE KEY
The word translated “teach” shares its root with Torah: the statutes are instruction that points a way.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you with instruction whose source is the LORD and whose human voice is Moses. Its statutes are not bare abstractions: the verb for “teach” carries the sense of directing, so what is spoken becomes a way handed on to the next generation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that sacred instruction is an arbitrary list without direction: the root of “teach” presents it as guidance toward a way.
THE ROOT
לְהוֹרֹת
lehorot
GROWS FROM
ירה
To point or direct; in this verb form, to instruct.
“point” in this verse is lehorot. The verb translated “teach” comes from ירה, whose range includes pointing and directing. The related תּוֹרָה (torah, instruction) grows from the same root: the instruction gives direction to the one receiving it.
ALSO GROWS
torah: Instruction, teaching
תּוֹרָה
This noun shares the root ירה; the teacher directs, and the instruction carries that direction forward.
moreh: Teacher, instructor
מוֹרֶה
The instructor is one who directs others through teaching, making the shared root visible in the person and the instruction.
חֻקִּים
ḥuqqim
GROWS FROM
חקק
ḥ-q-q
To inscribe, engrave, or prescribe.
“statutes” in this verse is ḥuqqim. The word belongs to a family associated with what is inscribed or prescribed. That adds a sense of durable shape to the direction carried by teaching: the instruction is given form that can be held and passed on.
ALSO GROWS
ḥoq: Statute, decree
חֹק
This singular form shares the root and names an established prescription.
ḥuqqah: Ordinance, prescribed practice
חֻקָּה
This related form shows how the root gives instruction a defined, repeatable shape.
דִּבֶּר
dibber
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak, utter.
The verse grounds teaching in speech: what is handed on has first been uttered. The same root can name both the act of speaking and the word or matter spoken.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, thing
דָּבָר
The spoken instruction is a word with substance, not direction detached from its source.
medabber: Speaking, one who speaks
מְדַבֵּר
This form makes the act of speech explicit: the instruction reaches its hearers through a speaking voice.
THE PATTERN
Spoken instruction becomes a path when it is carried into another generation’s understanding.
And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart. And you shall sharpen them to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk along the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.For he made a testimony stand in Jacob, and set instruction in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, to make them known to their children.And that from the cradle you have known the set-apart letters, which are able to make you wise unto deliverance through trust in Jesus, the Anointed One.THE THREAD
And many peoples shall go and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will aim us along his ways, and we will walk in his paths, for out of Zion the instruction shall go forth, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.Isaiah uses יֹרֵנוּ (yorenu, he will teach us) from ירה and places it beside תּוֹרָה (torah, instruction), the noun from that same root. The result is movement: “we will walk in his paths,” showing instruction as a way that can be followed.
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