What Does Leviticus 24:1 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 for “spake” also gives the word for “matter” or “thing,” so the LORD’s address is already something taking form.
THE MEANING
You meet this verse at the threshold of an utterance: the LORD addresses Moses, and the saying is poised to become specific in the words that follow. The name Moses carries the Torah’s image of being drawn out of water, placing emergence beside the arrival of speech. The word here is not empty sound; the root also names a matter or thing.
THE ROOT
וַיְדַבֵּר
vayedabber
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
D-B-R
To speak or declare; the related noun can mean a word, matter, or thing.
“spake” in this verse is vayedabber. The root holds speech and substance together: what is spoken can also be a matter or thing. English separates those ideas, while Hebrew lets the spoken word carry the weight of what is taking form.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, or thing
דָּבָר
This noun shares the root of “spake,” joining utterance with the matter being uttered.
devarim: Words, matters, or things
דְּבָרִים
The plural carries the same link across many words or matters, keeping speech and substance within one root family.
לֵּאמֹר
lemor
GROWS FROM
א־מ־ר
ʾ-M-R
To say or utter.
“Saying” introduces the words that follow. It gives the verse a hinge: speech is announced, then its content begins to unfold.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāmar: To say or speak
אָמַר
This is the simple verb from the root carried by “saying.”
ʾimrāh: Utterance or saying
אִמְרָה
This noun shows the root extending from the act of saying to the utterance itself.
מֹשֶׁה
Moshe
GROWS FROM
מ־ש־ה
M-Sh-H
To draw out.
Exodus 2:10 connects Moses’ name with being drawn out of the water. Here the address reaches one whose name carries that image of emergence.
ALSO GROWS
māšâ: To draw out
מָשָׁה
This is the verb linked to Moses’ name in the Torah’s naming explanation.
məšîtihû: I drew him out
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
This form appears in the explanation of Moses’ name and gives the name its image of emergence.
THE PATTERN
When the LORD speaks, the utterance opens a reality, a calling, or a message that unfolds.
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.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.God, who in many portions and in many ways spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets.THE THREAD
By the word of the LORD the heavens are made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.Psalm 33 names what Leviticus 24:1 enacts: “word” and “spake” come from the same Hebrew root, דָּבָר (dābār), meaning “word” or “matter.” Together, the verses hold spoken utterance and substance in one root: the word already carries what is taking form.
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