What Does Leviticus 18:1 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 voice addresses the one whose name is tied to being drawn out, placing his own story of emergence at the threshold of what follows.
THE MEANING
The word reaches a particular person by name; it is not an idea floating free, but speech entering a life and opening what comes next. Moses’ name carries the image of being drawn out, so the address meets someone already marked by emergence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that divine speech is only an abstract rule: here, it comes to a person by name.
THE ROOT
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
משׁה
m-sh-h
To draw out, especially from water.
“Moses” in this verse is Mosheh. The name Mosheh is linked in the text to mashah, “to draw out.” The person being addressed carries a name that recalls being drawn from the water, so his name holds a story of emergence before the speech continues.
ALSO GROWS
meshithihu: I drew him out.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
In Exodus 2:10, this is the phrase connected to Moses’ name; it gives the name its image of being drawn from water.
yimsheni: He drew me out.
יִמְשֵׁנִי
In Psalm 18:16, the same root describes being drawn from many waters, echoing the image carried in Moses’ name.
וַיְדַבֵּר
vayedabber
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; the related noun davar can mean word, matter, or thing.
“spake” in this verse is vayedabber. The root holds speaking and the matter spoken within one word-family. The LORD’s speech is presented as something with substance: a word that bears what is to follow.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This branch shows how Hebrew can hold utterance and its subject together; the speech here opens the matter that follows.
dover: One who speaks; speaking.
דֹבֵר
This form names the speaker through the same root, keeping the act of speaking connected to the voice that addresses Moses.
THE PATTERN
Divine speech enters a life through direct address, and the address opens what 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.Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,And he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why do you pursue me?THE THREAD
And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, the one drawn out, and she said, Because from the waters I drew him out.Leviticus names Moses as the one addressed; Exodus connects that name to mashah, “to draw out.” The speech reaches someone whose name carries the image of being drawn from water, a story of emergence already held in the name.
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