What Does Zechariah 8:18 Mean?

And the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying,

Zechariah 8:18 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And the word of the LORD of hosts came unto me, saying,

THE KEY

The verse makes revelation an arrival before it becomes an explanation.

THE MEANING

Here, you stand at the threshold of speech: the LORD’s word reaches its hearer before the message is disclosed. The verse lets the arrival itself carry weight, while the saying opens in what follows.

THE ROOT

דָּבָר

dāḇār

GROWS FROM

דבר

d-b-r

To speak or utter; the noun can mean a word, matter, or thing.

Dāḇār can name both what is spoken and the matter being addressed, so the word here is more than a sound carrying information: it is the matter that comes to its hearer. The same word appears in Psalm 33:6 as the means through which the heavens and their host are made.

ALSO GROWS

dāḇār: Word, speech, matter, or thing.

דָּבָר

Its range joins the utterance with the matter it brings into view, giving the arriving word weight beyond a mere message.

dibbēr: Spoke; to speak.

דִּבֵּר

This verbal branch keeps the noun rooted in active speech: the word arrives, then speaks.

THE PATTERN

A word from God is portrayed as an arrival that meets a hearer before its content unfolds.

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Jeremiah 1:4 · SDVAs in Zechariah, the word reaches its hearer before the saying itself opens.

While Annas and Caiaphas were the chief priests, the word of God came upon John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.

Luke 3:2 · SDVThe word is again described as coming to a person, making its arrival part of the encounter.

THE THREAD

By the word of the LORD the heavens are made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.

Psalm 33:6 · SDV

Psalm 33:6 uses the same Hebrew word, dāḇār, and shows it making the heavens and their host. Zechariah’s word arrives to a hearer; the psalm opens that same word’s reach to the host of heaven.

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