What Does Leviticus 22:17 Mean?
And the LORD said 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
Moses’s name is linked to being drawn out, and here the drawn-out one is a hearer before the words unfold.
THE MEANING
The verse gives the reader a living sequence: the LORD speaks, a particular person receives the address, and the words are about to unfold. Moses’s name is linked to being drawn out, so the listener’s name holds the image of emergence into view.
THE ROOT
מֹשֶׁה
Mōšeh
GROWS FROM
משה
m-sh-h
Draw out
The naming scene in Exodus 2:10 links Moses’s name to the verb meaning “draw out.” Here, the name stands beside the speech directed to him: the one associated with being drawn out is also the one who hears.
ALSO GROWS
māšāh: To draw out
מָשָׁה
This verb is the root-level action associated with Moses’s name.
məšîtihû: I drew him out
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
This is the phrase in Exodus 2:10 that makes the link between Moses’s name and being drawn out explicit.
וַיְדַבֵּר
vayedabber
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak, utter
“spake” in this verse is vayedabber. The same consonantal family includes both the act of speaking and the noun for a word, matter, or thing. Hebrew holds utterance and substance together, so the speech here carries something into the open.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: He spoke
דִּבֵּר
This verb names the act of speech that begins the verse.
dābār: Word, matter, or thing
דָּבָר
This noun shows how the root’s speech is joined to the substance being spoken.
THE PATTERN
Divine speech reaches a hearer through words that bring something into the open.
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.By the word of the LORD the heavens are made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow 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.The verse that names Moses directly links his name to the Hebrew verb “draw out.” Leviticus 22:17 places that name in the position of the hearer: the one associated with being drawn out is the one the voice addresses.
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