What Does Deuteronomy 12:27 Mean?
And you shall offer your rising offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the LORD your God. And the blood of your slaughters shall be poured out upon the altar of the LORD your God, and you shall eat the flesh.
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 thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the LORD thy God: and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of the LORD thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh.THE KEY
Hebrew names the altar from the same root as sacrifice, then the verse assigns blood and flesh different destinations.
THE MEANING
The verse places the flesh and blood of burnt offerings on the LORD’s altar, then says the blood of the sacrifices is poured there while their flesh is eaten. In this rite, blood and flesh remain joined but receive distinct places.
THE ROOT
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbēaḥ
GROWS FROM
זבח
zābaḥ
to slaughter for sacrifice
“your slaughters” in this verse is mizbēaḥ. English gives the altar and sacrifice separate names, but mizbēaḥ (altar) and zebaḥ (sacrifice) share the same root. The verse joins the place to the act in its wording, then distinguishes what happens to blood and flesh.
ALSO GROWS
zābaḥ: to slaughter, sacrifice
זָבַח
Names the act that gives the altar its name.
zebaḥ: a sacrifice, a slaughtered offering
זֶבַח
The same root appears in the verse’s “sacrifices,” linking them directly to the altar.
עֹלֹתֶיךָ
ʿolōṯeḵā
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿālāh
to go up, ascend
“your rising offerings” in this verse is ʿolōṯeḵā. The Hebrew name for a burnt offering grows from a root meaning “go up.” That upward sense is carried alongside the verse’s concrete sequence: the burnt offering is placed on the altar, while the blood of sacrifices is poured out and their flesh is eaten.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: to go up, ascend
עָלָה
Reveals the movement preserved in the name for the burnt offering.
heʿĕlāh: to bring up, cause to ascend; to offer up
הֶעֱלָה
Shows how the root’s upward movement can describe bringing an offering to the altar.
THE PATTERN
Blood is treated as life set apart from ordinary eating, while flesh can be received as food.
But flesh in its living soul, its blood, you shall not eat.For the living soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make a covering for your living souls, for it is the blood that covers the living soul.But that we write to them to hold off from the stains of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.THE THREAD
Only hold fast, that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the living soul, and you may not eat the living soul with the flesh.This verse names the reason for the division: blood is life, and that life is not eaten with the flesh. Deuteronomy 12:27 gives the distinction a physical form, pouring out the blood and eating the flesh.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us