What Does Leviticus 8:36 Mean?
So Aaron and his sons did all the words which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses.
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
So Aaron and his sons did all things which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses.THE KEY
Here, “things” is devarim, the same Hebrew word-family as “word”, so what is spoken and what gets done are held in one linguistic movement.
THE MEANING
A word can arrive as a concrete matter to be carried through; speech and action belong to one movement. The command passes through Moses’ hand to Aaron and his sons, and they complete all that is entrusted to them. The verse holds completion as a living reality: what is spoken reaches its doing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a good intention counts as completion even when nothing has been carried through.
THE ROOT
הַדְּבָרִים
haddevarim
GROWS FROM
דבר
to speak; word, matter, or thing
“all the words” in this verse is haddevarim. English gives “things,” while davar also means “word”: Hebrew names the commanded matters with the same word-family as speech. The verse lets the spoken charge and the concrete matters it concerns meet in one linguistic family.
ALSO GROWS
davar: word; matter or thing
דָּבָר
This is the singular form behind devarim, linking what is spoken with the matter that is acted on.
dibber: spoke; said
דִּבֵּר
This verb shares the root, connecting the command’s spoken form to the matters Aaron and his sons carry out.
צִוָּה
tsivvah
GROWS FROM
צוה
to command, charge, or commission
“commanded” in this verse is tsivvah. The command is a charge carried through a human hand, not an abstract instruction floating apart from action. “By the hand of Moses” makes that relay visible, and the sons’ doing carries the charge through to completion.
ALSO GROWS
mitzvah: commandment; charge
מִצְוָה
The noun form shows the same root can name the command as an entrusted charge.
tsav: command; order
צַו
This shorter form keeps the root’s sense of a charge given to be carried out.
מֹשֶׁה
Moshe
GROWS FROM
משה
to draw out; the name Moshe is tied to being drawn out
“Moses” in this verse is Moshe. The name Moshe carries the image of being drawn out, as the name-story in Exodus connects it with mashah, “to draw out.” Here the one whose name carries that image is the hand through which the charge reaches others and is completed.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: to draw out
מָשָׁה
This verb supplies the name’s image of being drawn out.
Moshe: Moses; the name associated with being drawn out
מֹשֶׁה
The name recalls being drawn out, while this verse places Moses as the human link through whom the command is conveyed.
THE PATTERN
A spoken charge reaches completion when it is carried through into action.
So Moses did, according to all that the LORD commanded him; so he did.His mother said to the servants, Whatever he says to you, do it.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
So Moses did, according to all that the LORD commanded him; so he did.Both verses use the Hebrew roots עשׂה (asah, “do”) and צוה (tsavah, “command”), in a closely related sentence pattern. In Exodus, Moses completes what he is commanded; here, the same pattern passes through Moses to Aaron and his sons.
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