What Does Numbers 31:1 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 voice reaches Moses, whose name means “drawn out,” before the next word unfolds.
THE MEANING
You stand at the threshold of a message: you are addressed before you know what it contains. The word carries substance, and its meaning unfolds in what follows.
THE ROOT
וַיְדַבֵּר
wayedabber
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak or declare; its noun branch can mean a word, matter, or thing.
“spake” in this verse is wayedabber. The verb comes from the same root as davar, which names both a word and a matter or thing. Speech here carries substance; “saying” opens what that substance is.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing
דָּבָר
The noun shares the root of “spake,” joining the spoken word to the substance it carries.
dibbur: Speech or utterance
דִּבּוּר
This speech noun keeps the verse’s spoken act connected to the same root.
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
משה
To draw out, especially from water, as the name is explained in Exodus 2:10.
Moses’ name holds “drawn out” within it. The address therefore meets someone whose name already carries the mark of being drawn out before any new instruction is spoken.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out
מָשָׁה
This is the verb associated with Moses’ name and reveals the meaning carried by the person addressed.
meshitihu: I drew him out
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
This form appears in the explanation of Moses’ name: “Because I drew him out of the water.”
THE PATTERN
A voice meets a person through direct address before the message’s substance unfolds.
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,And he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why do you pursue me?To him the gatekeeper opens, and the sheep hear and respond to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.THE THREAD
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram. I am your shield, and your very great wages.Numbers uses the verb from דבר for “spake”; Genesis uses the same root in “word” (davar). One names the act of speaking, the other the word that comes, revealing the shared root beneath the voice and what it carries.
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