What Does Numbers 25:10 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 pause before revelation is part of the revelation: the word first arrives as a voice directed to a person.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s word comes as direct speech to a named hearer, and the verse pauses before its content is revealed. As you read now, you meet the threshold of that utterance before you know what it asks or uncovers.
THE ROOT
וַיְדַבֵּר
vayedabber
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak or declare; the related noun davar can mean a word, matter, or affair.
“spake” in this verse is vayedabber. The Hebrew verb belongs to the same root as davar, “word” or “matter.” Speech and what is spoken are held close together: this is not detached information, but an utterance that puts something before its hearer.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word; matter; affair
דָּבָר
The noun shares the root of “spake,” linking the spoken word with the matter it brings into view.
dibber: He spoke; he declared
דִּבֵּר
This verb form makes the root’s speech meaning explicit in the verse’s opening.
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
משה
m-sh-h
To draw out, as from water.
Moses’s name carries the sense of being drawn out, echoed in the verse that explains his name. The speech is addressed to someone whose name already holds a story of being brought out.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out
מָשָׁה
This verb supplies the name’s stated wordplay and its sense of being brought out.
mashui: Drawn out
מָשׁוּי
Exodus 2:10 uses this form in the explanation of Moses’s name, giving the name-nature link its own textual anchor.
לֵאמֹר
le'mor
GROWS FROM
אמר
ʾ-m-r
To say or utter.
The verse uses two speech verbs in succession: the LORD speaks, then the text opens the content with “saying.” The repeated framing holds attention on the arrival of speech before its message is disclosed.
ALSO GROWS
amar: To say; to utter
אָמַר
This is the verb root behind “saying,” naming the act that introduces the words to come.
imrah: Utterance; saying
אִמְרָה
This noun from the same root shows how an act of saying can also be held as a spoken utterance.
THE PATTERN
Divine speech reaches a hearer and opens what can happen next.
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.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.THE THREAD
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.The “saying” in Numbers and “said” in Genesis share the Hebrew root אמר (amar), “to say or utter.” In Genesis, speech is followed by light; Numbers pauses at the threshold of the words about to be spoken.
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