What Does Leviticus 17:2 Mean?
Speak to Aaron and to his sons and to all the children of Israel, and say to them, This is the word the LORD has commanded, 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
Speak unto Aaron, and unto his sons, and unto all the children of Israel, and say unto them; This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, saying,THE KEY
The KJV’s “thing” is הַדָּבָר (hadavar, “word or matter”): the command itself arrives as speech meant for the whole assembly.
THE MEANING
The command is spoken to Aaron, his sons, and all Israel; its address embraces the whole named people. What follows is presented as the LORD’s commanded word, spoken aloud.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that the instruction is meant only for the priestly household: the verse names all Israel alongside Aaron and his sons.
THE ROOT
הַדָּבָר
hadavar
GROWS FROM
דבר
dabar
To speak or utter; the related noun can mean word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר (davar, “word or matter”) can name both what is spoken and the matter being spoken about. The speech verb דִּבֵּר (dibber, “he spoke”) grows from the same root, revealing the spoken word inside the KJV’s “thing.”
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The verse uses this noun for what the LORD has commanded, joining the command’s content to the idea of a word.
dibber: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
This speech verb shares the root and shows that the “thing” in the verse belongs to the language of speaking.
צִוָּה
tsivvah
GROWS FROM
צוה
tsavah
To command, charge, or direct.
צִוָּה (tsivvah, “commanded”) gives the spoken word directive force. The same root appears in מִצְוָה (mitzvah, “commandment”), connecting this particular utterance to an instruction that carries an obligation.
ALSO GROWS
mitzvah: Commandment or instruction.
מִצְוָה
This noun from the same root shows the directive character carried by the LORD’s spoken word.
tsav: Command or charge.
צַו
This form makes the root’s sense of issuing a directive explicit.
THE PATTERN
A word from God carries force beyond sound: it brings reality into view, establishes direction, or exposes what is hidden.
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.For he says, and it comes to be; he commands, and it stands.For the word of God is living and working, and sharper than any two-edged sword, reaching through even to the dividing of living soul and breath, of joints and marrow, and it separates the inward movements and thoughts of the heart.THE THREAD
And God spoke all these words, saying,The Hebrew pairs the speech verb דִּבֵּר (dibber, “he spoke”) with דְּבָרִים (devarim, “words”), forms of the same root found in Leviticus’s “thing.” The connection reveals the commanded matter as a word spoken into shared hearing.
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