What Does Exodus 12:9 Mean?
Do not eat any of it raw, nor boiled at all in waters, but roasted with fire, its head with its legs and its insides.
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
Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.THE KEY
The obscure “purtenance” is the animal’s interior, and the verse keeps it within the whole meal.
THE MEANING
The verse sets the meal’s preparation precisely: it is not eaten raw or boiled in water, but roasted with fire. Its head, legs, and inward parts belong to the same prepared whole. Even the hidden interior is named alongside what can be seen.
THE ROOT
קִרְבּוֹ
qirbo
GROWS FROM
קרב
To approach or draw near.
“insides” in this verse is qirbo. The Hebrew word here means the animal’s interior, or inward parts. It shares its root consonants with qerev, “interior” or “midst,” and qorban, an offering brought near: the part the KJV calls “purtenance” belongs to a word family that also carries the language of nearness.
ALSO GROWS
qerev: Interior, inward parts, or midst.
קֶרֶב
It clarifies that the verse names what is inside the animal, not a vague leftover portion.
qorban: Offering, something brought near.
קָרְבָּן
Its shared root links the language of the interior with the language of bringing near.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats the inward as part of the whole that stands before God.
And its inward parts and its legs he shall wash in water, and the priest shall send all of it up in smoke upon the altar, a rising offering, an offering of fire, a fragrance that settles to the LORD.Behold, you delight in truth in the inward parts; and in the sealed place you make me perceive wisdom.And no creation is hidden before him, but all things are naked and bared at the throat to the eyes of him to whom our account belongs.THE THREAD
And its inward parts and its legs he shall wash in water, and the priest shall send all of it up in smoke upon the altar, a rising offering, an offering of fire, a fragrance that settles to the LORD.The “inwards” here belongs to the same qerev word family as Exodus’s “purtenance,” and both verses name the inward parts beside the legs. Leviticus makes their place unmistakable: they are washed and included in what is burned on the altar.
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