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Exodus 31:1

in Exodus 31

Then the LORD said to Moses,

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying,

KJV

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

This verse in Exodus 31

Commentary

3 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

Then the LORD said to Moses

on Exodus 31:1-2

This is the sixth of the seven tabernacle speeches, which run from 25:1 to 31:12, and it names a man before any work. God has called by name Bezalel of Judah, grandson of Hur, who held up Moses' hands at Rephidim in 17:12.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

And the Lord spake unto Moses,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

Exo 35:30-35. This solemn call of Bezaleel and Aholiab is full of instruction. Their work was to be only that of handicraftsmen. Still it was Yahweh Himself who called them by name to their tasks, and the powers which they were now called upon to exercise in their respective crafts, were declared to have been given them by the Holy Spirit. Thus is every effort of skill, every sort of well-ordered labor, when directed to a right end, brought into the very highest sphere of association.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

Rabbi Saadiah Gaon asked, “Why were Bezalel and Oholiab chosen?” 1 To construct the tabernacle.
Ibn Ezra: Spain, 1089–1167 · Ibn Ezra on Exodus 31:1:1, via Sefaria, Ibn Ezra's commentary on the Pentateuch, tran. and annot. by H. Norman Strickman and Arthur M. Silver. Menorah Pub., 1988-2004

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

5 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיְדַבֵּ֥רand he spoke

    vaydaberH1696 →1141 times

  • יְהוָ֖הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • מֹשֶׁ֥הMoses

    moshehH4872 →765 times

  • לֵּאמֹֽר׃<to> saying

    lemorH559 →5305 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Where this verse is studied

About Exodus

The Israelites Leaving Egypt, David Roberts, 1829. Public domain.
The Israelites Leaving Egypt, David Roberts, 1829. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).