What Does 2 Chronicles 35:11 Mean?
And they slaughtered the Passover, and the priests scattered the blood from their hands, and the Levites skinned them.
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 they killed the passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hands, and the Levites flayed them.THE KEY
The blood is passed from the Levites’ hands to the priests: this sacred act moves through a chain of touch, not at a distance.
THE MEANING
The verse makes the Passover tangible: the animal is killed, its blood is handled by the Levites and priests, and its body is stripped. Blood, skin, and shared labor are part of what the rite means.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that sacred meaning floats free of bodily cost: here the rite involves blood, hide, and hands.
THE ROOT
זָרְקוּ
zāreqû from zaraq
GROWS FROM
זרק
to throw, cast, or dash
“scattered” in this verse is zāreqû from zaraq. The Hebrew says the priests dash the blood from the Levites’ hand. “Sprinkled” can sound diffuse; this root keeps the force of casting and the handoff in view.
ALSO GROWS
mizraq: A basin or bowl used for sacrificial blood.
מִזְרָק
This vessel’s name comes from the same root as dashing: the word family joins holding the blood to casting it onward.
zoreq: One who throws or dashes.
זֹרֵק
The active form keeps a person in the action: the blood is cast by a hand, not applied by itself.
מַפְשִׁיטִים
maphshitim
GROWS FROM
פשט
to strip off; in other contexts, to spread out or raid
“skinned” in this verse is maphshitim. The root names the removal of an outer covering, and elsewhere also names spreading out or raiding. Here its bodily sense is direct: the Levites strip away the animals’ hides.
ALSO GROWS
pashat: To strip off; remove a covering.
פָּשַׁט
This is the action carried by “flayed”: the body’s outer covering is taken away.
pashat: To spread out or raid.
פָּשַׁט
The same root can describe an outward advance, showing a broader range of forceful movement beyond the stripping in this verse.
THE PATTERN
Sacrificial blood becomes present through hands that kill, carry, and apply it.
And they will take some of the blood and set it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they will eat it.And he shall slaughter the bullock before the face of the LORD, and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring near the blood, and dash it round about upon the altar that is at the opening of the tent of meeting.And nearly all things are cleansed in blood according to the instruction, and without the pouring out of blood, no release comes.THE THREAD
And they stood in their standing place, according to their judgment, according to the instruction of Moses the man of God, and the priests scattered the blood, which they received from the hand of the Levites.The same root זָרַק (zaraq, to throw or dash) appears in “sprinkled,” and the verse names the same transfer of blood from Levites to priests. That repeated handoff makes the work in this verse part of a clearly visible sequence.
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