What Does Leviticus 14:1 Mean?
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
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 the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,THE KEY
The Hebrew root behind “spake” also gives the word for “word” or “matter,” so speech arrives carrying substance.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a moment before instruction begins: the LORD speaks, and Moses receives the address. The word comes from the speaker and meets a named hearer.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that every true word must begin inside you: here the address originates with the LORD and meets its hearer.
THE ROOT
וַיְדַבֵּר
vayedabber
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak or utter; its word-family also names a word or matter.
“spoke” in this verse is vayedabber. The verb for the LORD’s speech belongs to the same family as davar, “word” or “matter.” Hebrew lets speech and substance sit close together: the spoken word is more than sound; it carries meaning into the exchange.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: He spoke; uttered.
דִּבֵּר
This is the verb used for the LORD’s act of addressing Moses.
davar: Word; matter or affair.
דָּבָר
The same root joins speaking with what is spoken or at issue.
devarim: Words; matters or affairs.
דְּבָרִים
The plural keeps the same link between spoken words and substantive matters.
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
מ־שׁ־ה
m-sh-h
To draw out; the name is linked to this verb in Exodus 2:10.
Exodus 2:10 ties Moses’ name to מָשָׁה, mashah, “draw out.” The hearer named here therefore carries a name-nature of being drawn out, and this verse opens with him receiving a word.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This verb supplies the name’s stated wordplay in Exodus 2:10.
Mosheh: Moses; linked in Exodus 2:10 to being drawn out.
מֹשֶׁה
The name identifies the person who receives the address in this verse.
THE PATTERN
An address from God comes before the hearer’s response and the direction that follows.
And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him from the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am.And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, for your servant hears and responds.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.THE THREAD
By the word of the LORD the heavens are made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.The Hebrew word translated “word” here, davar, shares the ד־ב־ר root with “spake” in Leviticus. Psalm 33:6 shows that same word-family in a creative act, widening this opening address into speech that carries effect.
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