What Does Deuteronomy 16:5 Mean?
You may not slaughter the Passover within any of the gates the LORD your God gives you.
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
Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee:THE KEY
The gate you inhabit does not decide where deliverance is gathered; the LORD does.
THE MEANING
The Passover is not enacted within every gate the LORD gives you; its place is the one the LORD chooses. The boundary of a home or town does not determine where deliverance is remembered.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The place I call home is automatically where deliverance must be remembered.
THE ROOT
לִזְבֹּחַ
lizboach
GROWS FROM
זבח
Slaughter for a sacrificial offering.
“slaughter” in this verse is lizboach. The offering and the altar grow from the same root: זֶבַח (zebaḥ), a sacrifice, and מִזְבֵּחַ (mizbēaḥ), an altar. The verse restricts where the Passover sacrifice is made; the act is gathered at the place the LORD chooses.
ALSO GROWS
zebaḥ: A sacrifice or sacrificial offering.
זֶבַח
It names the offering itself, showing the shared root behind the act of sacrificing.
mizbēaḥ: Altar.
מִזְבֵּחַ
The altar shares the root of sacrifice, tying the offering to the place where it is made.
פֶּסַח
pesaḥ
GROWS FROM
פסח
The linked verb means to pass over or spare.
The name of the Passover offering is tied to פָּסַח (pāsaḥ), the verb used for the LORD passing over or sparing in Exodus 12:13. The offering carries that act of deliverance into its remembrance, while this verse specifies where it is enacted.
ALSO GROWS
pāsaḥ: To pass over or spare.
פָּסַח
The verb links the name of the offering to the deliverance it remembers.
pesaḥ: The Passover offering or feast.
פֶּסַח
The offering bears the name associated with being passed over or spared.
נֹתֵן
noten
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
The gates are described as what the LORD gives, but receiving a place does not make every gate the appointed place for the Passover. The verse distinguishes the territory given from the place chosen for this act.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This is the verb behind “giveth,” framing the gates as received.
mattanah: A gift.
מַתָּנָה
This related noun echoes that the gates are given, not self-appointed as the place for the offering.
THE PATTERN
The place of approach to God is not set by a person’s local boundary but by what God appoints.
But to the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to place his nature there, even to his dwelling you shall seek, and there you shall come.That your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which you have said, My name shall be there, so that you may hear and respond to the prayer which your servant makes toward this place.Jesus said to her, Woman, trust me, the hour is coming when you will bow down to the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.THE THREAD
But at the place the LORD your God will choose to pitch his name, there you shall slaughter the Passover at evening, as the sun comes in, at the appointed time of your coming out of Egypt.The root זבח (z-b-ḥ), “sacrifice,” returns in the next verse, now attached to the place the LORD chooses. The restriction is a redirection: the Passover offering is gathered at the appointed place.
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