What Does Leviticus 23:23 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 word has already arrived; this verse holds you at the threshold where its substance is about to unfold.
THE MEANING
This verse places you at the lip of a message: the address is spoken, while its content is still unfolding. The Hebrew word for “spake,” וַיְדַבֵּר (vayedabber, “he spoke”), shares its root with דָּבָר (davar, “word” and “matter”), joining speech to substance. Moses’ name carries the image of one drawn out, and the coming instruction is entrusted to one marked by that image.
THE ROOT
וַיְדַבֵּר
vayedabber
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; the related noun davar means a word, matter, or thing.
“spake” in this verse is vayedabber. The same root holds both speaking and the matter spoken. The word here is already substance, even before the verse reveals what it says.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
It joins spoken language to the matter that the speech brings into view.
medabber: Speaker; one who speaks.
מְדַבֵּר
The speaker and the spoken word grow from the same root.
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
מ־ש־ה
m-sh-h
To draw out; the name carries the image of one drawn out of water.
The biblical wordplay links Moses’ name to מָשָׁה (mashah, “to draw out”). The one addressed bears a name shaped by being drawn out, as the next words are about to emerge through him.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This verb gives the name its image of being drawn from water.
Mosheh: Moses; the one drawn out in the name’s biblical wordplay.
מֹשֶׁה
The name keeps the drawing-out image within the verse’s recipient.
לֵאמֹר
le'mor
GROWS FROM
א־מ־ר
ʾ-m-r
To say or utter.
“Saying” turns the address toward the words that follow. This line stops just as their content is about to appear.
ALSO GROWS
ʾomer: Utterance or speech.
אֹמֶר
It shows the root can name the spoken expression itself.
le'mor: To say; introducing what is spoken.
לֵאמֹר
This form opens the speech that continues beyond the verse.
THE PATTERN
A spoken address reaches the hearer before the full content of its message is disclosed.
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram. I am your shield, and your very great wages.Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,And a voice came to him, Rise, Peter; slaughter, and eat.THE THREAD
And he bent you low, and made you hunger, and fed you with manna, which you had never perceived, nor had your fathers, so that he might make you perceive that humankind does not live by bread alone, but by every word that goes out from the mouth of the LORD does humankind live.Leviticus uses וַיְדַבֵּר (vayedabber, “he spoke”); Deuteronomy uses דָּבָר (davar, “word”), from the same root. The shared seed joins speaking to the matter received: the word that follows is nourishment, not a decorative preface.
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