thus, in this way; also here and now: a pointing word that draws attention to a particular manner, place, or moment
This is a small pointing word. Like the English gesture behind "like this" or "right here," it directs a listener to something close at hand: the way a thing is done, the spot where it happens, or the point in time it has reached. Everything it does grows from that single pointing function, so the differences below are shades of one word, not separate words.
Its most common job by far is to point forward to speech: "thus," introducing the exact words that follow. This is the engine of the standard prophetic opening, "This is what the LORD says," which frames a huge share of the prophets. The phrase marks the speech that follows as a quoted message, the way a herald announces a king's words before delivering them, and the word carries no weight of its own beyond that pointing.
Less often it points to a place ("here," "over there") or to a stretch of time reached so far ("until now"). Doubled up as "this way and that," it sketches motion or extent on both sides, as when Moses looks "this way and that" before acting, or quail fall "a day's journey on this side and a day's journey on that side" around the camp.