Commandment The most general word for command or commandment is some form of tsavah (צוה), which appears to signify literally to set up or appoint . It is largely used from Genesis 2:16 onward, and applies to any order, human or divine. The general Greek renderings are ἐντέλλομαι, προστάττω, and ἐντολή .
Amar (אמר), to speak, is rendered 'command' in Exodus 8:27 and forty-four other passages; and Davar (דבר), to speak, is so rendered twenty times. What is spoken either by the Lord or by any one of high authority is naturally looked up on as a commandment. With God, to speak is to command; and with man, to hear ought to be to obey. [The ordinary word for obedience in the O. T. literally signifies hearing.] Amar is used in Job 9:7, where we read that God 'commandeth the sun and it riseth not' --the laws of nature, their continuance, and their cessation, being equally regarded as the utterance of the Divine word. So God 'commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind' (Psalms 107:25); 'He sendeth forth his commandment up on earth, his word runneth very swiftly' (Psalms 147:15).
Peh (פה), mouth, is rendered 'commandment' in Genesis 45:21, Exodus 17:1, and thirty-two other passages. It is possibly an Egyptian idiom, and may be compared with the use of the 'mouth' as signifying self in Coptic. It occurs in Job 39:27, 'Doth the eagle mount up at thy command?' in Proverbs 8:29, 'He gave to the sea his decree that the waters should not pass his commandment;' Ecclesiastes 8:2, 'Keep the king's commandment;' Lamentations 1:18, 'I have rebelled against his commandment.'