What Does Leviticus 6:8 Mean?

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying.

Leviticus 6:8 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

THE KEY

The voice addresses the one “drawn out,” making Moses’ name a hidden preface to the instruction that follows.

THE MEANING

The LORD speaks to Moses, whose name carries the meaning “drawn out,” and begins a saying whose content unfolds beyond this line. The reader meets the moment when a word is addressed to a particular life before its full shape is visible.

THE ROOT

וַיְדַבֵּר

wayyedabber

GROWS FROM

דבר

D-B-R

To speak or declare; the word-family also names a word or matter.

“spake” in this verse is wayyedabber. The root connects speaking with ⁨דָּבָר⁩ (davar, “word” or “matter”): what is spoken is already a matter taking shape. Here speech opens an address, and the saying that follows begins to unfold its content.

ALSO GROWS

davar: Word, matter, or thing

דָּבָר

This branch shows that speech and the matter spoken share one root.

medabber: Speaking; one who speaks

מְדַבֵּר

This form names the speaker through the act of speaking, which is exactly how the verse presents the LORD addressing Moses.

מֹשֶׁה

Mosheh

GROWS FROM

משה

M-SH-H

To draw out, especially from water.

The name Moses carries the act of being drawn out. The verse addresses someone whose name already holds a movement from water into life, so the instruction comes to a person marked by that passage.

ALSO GROWS

mashah: To draw out

מָשָׁה

This verb gives the name Moses its meaning: the act of drawing out is held inside the name.

meshitihu: I drew him out

מְשִׁיתִהוּ

This form appears in Exodus 2:10, where Moses’ name is explained through the act of drawing him out of the water.

THE PATTERN

The divine voice reaches a particular hearer through direct address.

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

Exodus 25:1 · SDVThe same speaking formula shows instruction arriving as direct address to Moses.

And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, for your servant hears and responds.

1 Samuel 3:10 · SDVThe voice calls Samuel by name, and he answers as one personally addressed.

And he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why do you pursue me?

Acts 9:4 · SDVThe voice addresses Saul by name, making the encounter immediate and personal.

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.

Exodus 2:10 · SDV

Here the name ⁨מֹשֶׁה⁩ (Mosheh, “Moses”) is linked with ⁨מְשִׁיתִהוּ⁩ (meshitihu, “I drew him out”). Leviticus addresses that same “drawn-out” one, so his name carries a remembered passage through water into the present word.

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