What Does Deuteronomy 18:3 Mean?
And this is the due of the priests, from the people, from those who slaughter, whether ox or sheep. They give the arm, the two cheeks, and the belly to the priest.
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 this shall be the priest’s due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep; and they shall give unto the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw.THE KEY
The priest’s “due” is called a mishpat, an ordered right built into the sacrifice, not an afterthought.
THE MEANING
The offering carries a defined share for the priest who serves. The verse names that share in the animal’s own parts, the shoulder, both cheeks, and stomach, so the portion is concrete, not abstract. Bringing the sacrifice includes its distribution.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The priest’s portion is not a discretionary tip from the giver; the verse names it as an established due.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁפַּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
שפט
To judge, decide, or set an order.
The priest’s share is named with a word for an ordered right, so it belongs to the structure of the offering rather than to the giver’s whim. English “due” carries this right, while the Hebrew root also links it to judgment and ordering.
ALSO GROWS
shafat: To judge or decide.
שָׁפַט
The right named here belongs to a larger root family concerned with deciding what is due.
shofet: A judge.
שֹׁפֵט
The judge is the one who establishes or applies an ordered decision, echoing the defined share in this verse.
וְנָתַן
venatan
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
“give” in this verse is venatan. The giving here is a placement: a specific portion passes to a specific recipient. The root’s sense of setting or placing brings the verse’s precise distribution into view.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
The verse uses this root to describe placing the named portions with the priest.
mattanah: A gift.
מַתָּנָה
This related word shows the same root at work in something given; here the portion is more specifically established as a due.
הַזֶּבַח
hazevach
GROWS FROM
זבח
To slaughter or sacrifice.
“those who slaughter” in this verse is hazevach. The root keeps the slaughtered offering and the altar within one word-family. Here the sacrifice remains materially divisible: the animal offered also yields the priest’s share.
ALSO GROWS
zoveach: One who sacrifices.
זֹבֵחַ
This names the person bringing the sacrifice, whose offering carries the priest’s portion.
mizbeach: Altar.
מִזְבֵּחַ
The altar’s name comes from the same root family, linking the slaughtered offering to the place of offering.
THE PATTERN
An offering’s ordered distribution includes a defined share for those serving at the altar.
For the waving breast and the lifted thigh I have taken from the children of Israel, from the slaughters of their wholeness offerings, and I have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons by a statute for the ages from among the children of Israel.Do you not know that those who serve the set-apart things eat from the temple, and those who sit beside the altar share with the altar?THE THREAD
For the waving breast and the lifted thigh I have taken from the children of Israel, from the slaughters of their wholeness offerings, and I have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons by a statute for the ages from among the children of Israel.Both verses use נתן (natan, give, set, place): Deuteronomy names the portions given to the priest, while Leviticus describes the breast and shoulder given to Aaron and his sons. The shared root makes the priestly share a placed portion within the offering, not a vague benefit.
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