What Does 2 Samuel 24:18 Mean?
And Gad came that day to David and said to him, "Go up, raise an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite."
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 Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite.THE KEY
“Go up” shares its Hebrew root with the burnt offering, joining ascent and sacrifice before the altar is built.
THE MEANING
The summons reaches you at the threshing floor, where the harvest is separated. There an altar is established for the LORD: the place of sifting becomes the place where an offering is made.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The sacred can only be found in a place already set apart.
THE ROOT
עֲלֵה
ʿalēh
GROWS FROM
עלה
To ascend, go up, or rise.
The command “Go up” shares its root with עֹלָה (ʿolah), the burnt offering, named for what rises. The Hebrew links the movement toward the altar with the rising offering itself.
ALSO GROWS
ʿolah: Burnt offering; that which ascends.
עֹלָה
It carries the same root as “Go up,” joining ascent with the offering that rises from the altar.
ʿaliyyah: Ascent; upper chamber.
עֲלִיָּה
This branch preserves the root’s sense of upward movement in a noun.
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbēaḥ
GROWS FROM
זבח
To slaughter or sacrifice.
The Hebrew name for an altar keeps sacrifice inside the word: it is the place of slaughter and offering. Set on a threshing floor, it locates the offering at the ground where separation takes place.
ALSO GROWS
zebaḥ: Sacrifice; sacrificial meal.
זֶבַח
This noun from the same root names what is brought to the altar.
zōvēaḥ: One who sacrifices.
זֹבֵחַ
This form names the person carrying out the act contained in the altar’s name.
THE PATTERN
At a decisive turning point, an altar makes an offering tangible.
And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and sent up rising offerings on the altar.Then the fire of the LORD fell, and ate the rising offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the waters that were in the trench.Therefore I urge you, brothers, through the compassions of God, to set your bodies beside God as a living sacrifice, set apart, well-pleasing to him, which is your true service.THE THREAD
And David built there an altar to the LORD, and sent up rising offerings and wholeness offerings, and called out to the LORD; and he answered him from the heavens by fire upon the altar of the rising offerings.“Go up” comes from עלה (ʿ-l-h; ʿalah), the same root that gives עֹלָה (ʿolah), “burnt offering.” The next account brings the link into view: the offering rises from the altar, and fire answers from heaven.
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