What Does Leviticus 8:5 Mean?
And Moses said to the assembly, This is the word which the LORD commanded to be done.
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 Moses said unto the congregation, This is the thing which the LORD commanded to be done.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “thing” is also the word for “word”: what the LORD speaks is already a matter taking shape among the gathered people.
THE MEANING
The word enters the gathered community as something to be done. What the LORD speaks is not abstract information; it takes visible form in the shared life of the reader’s community.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that receiving a divine word is only a matter of hearing or understanding it: here, the word is already oriented toward action.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; a spoken word, matter, or thing.
The phrase “this is the thing” uses davar, the same word that can mean “word.” Hebrew lets speech and the matter it sets in motion remain joined: the LORD’s word is already becoming something the assembly can do.
ALSO GROWS
devarim: Words, matters, or things.
דְּבָרִים
The plural keeps the same overlap: what is spoken can also be what is at issue or taking place.
dibbēr: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal form makes the word’s movement audible: davar as a matter is linked to the act of speaking it.
THE PATTERN
A word takes visible form when it moves from hearing into action.
But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.THE THREAD
But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.“The word” is davar, the same Hebrew word that can mean “thing” in this verse. Deuteronomy makes the connection visible: the word is already near, in mouth and heart, and moving into what can be done.
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