What Does Numbers 15:17 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 a “matter”: speech arrives carrying something real.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s word reaches you as an address, carried into hearing through a human voice. Moses’ name means “drawn out,” placing one brought from concealment at the point where the message is spoken.
THE ROOT
דִּבֶּר
dibbēr
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak or declare; this root also forms a word for a matter or thing.
English “spake” can sound like bare sound, but the same root gives davar, meaning “word,” “matter,” or “thing.” Hebrew holds speech and its content together: what is spoken carries something real to Moses.
ALSO GROWS
dāḇār: Word; matter; thing
דָּבָר
The same root connects an utterance with the matter it carries, giving speech substance.
mədabbēr: Speaking; one who speaks
מְדַבֵּר
This form keeps the act of speaking and the one who speaks within the same root family.
מֹשֶׁה
Mōšeh
GROWS FROM
משה
To draw out, especially from water.
Moses’ name carries “drawn out” into the scene where the word reaches him. One brought out of the water bears a name of emergence as he receives the spoken message.
ALSO GROWS
māšāh: To draw out
מָשָׁה
This is the verb connected to Moses’ name in Exodus 2:10, where he is drawn out of the water.
Mōšeh: Moses; the one drawn out
מֹשֶׁה
The name holds the movement from being hidden in the water to being brought into the open.
THE PATTERN
The living word becomes hearable as direct address, carried through a human voice.
And God spoke all these words, saying,And he came into a cave and lodged there, and look, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.THE THREAD
I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to show you the word of the LORD, for you were afraid before the face of the fire, and did not go up into the mountain, saying,The Hebrew word translated “word” here is davar, from the same root as “spake” in Numbers 15:17. It shows the spoken word being carried between the LORD and its hearers, joining speech and message in one movement.
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