What Does Exodus 20:26 Mean?
And you shall not go up to my altar by steps, so that your nakedness is not uncovered upon it.
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
Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.THE KEY
The route upward is arranged so that approaching the altar does not expose the body.
THE MEANING
The verse places the reader’s body inside the approach to what is sacred: the way toward the altar does not expose it. Access and bodily dignity remain together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that approaching what is sacred requires exposing the body.
THE ROOT
תַעֲלֶה
taʿaleh
GROWS FROM
עלה
Rise, ascend, go up (ʿalah).
“go up” in this verse is taʿaleh. The same root names עֹלָה (ʿolah), a burnt offering, and עֲלִיָּה (ʿaliyah), an ascent or upper room. English separates going upward from the offering that rises, while Hebrew keeps them in one family; this verse shows that the body’s ascent toward the altar has consequences for what is exposed.
ALSO GROWS
ʿolah: Burnt offering; an offering named from the root of ascending.
עֹלָה
It links the movement upward in this verse with what rises from the altar.
ʿaliyah: Ascent; an upper room.
עֲלִיָּה
It shows the same root naming both upward movement and a space reached by going up.
תִּגָּלֶה
tiggaleh
GROWS FROM
גלה
Uncover, reveal (galah).
“uncovered” in this verse is tiggaleh. Here, “discovered” is a form of גלה (galah), to uncover or reveal. The verb names nakedness as what could be brought into view, so the warning concerns actual exposure rather than a vague spiritual condition.
ALSO GROWS
galah: Uncover, reveal.
גָּלָה
It names the act of bringing something hidden into view.
nigleh: Be revealed, come into view.
נִגְלֶה
It shows the root from the perspective of what becomes visible.
מִזְבְּחִי
mizbechi
GROWS FROM
זבח
Slaughter, especially slaughter for sacrifice (zavaḥ).
The Hebrew name for the altar carries the root זבח (zavaḥ), sacrifice by slaughter. The warning about exposure belongs to the very place where sacrifice takes place.
ALSO GROWS
zevaḥ: Sacrifice.
זֶבַח
It names the offering associated with the altar.
zoveaḥ: One who sacrifices.
זֹבֵחַ
It shows the same root naming the act through the person who performs it.
THE PATTERN
Approach to what is set apart is arranged to keep bodily exposure covered.
And the LORD God made tunics of skin for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.And you will make for them linen breeches to cover the flesh of their nakedness, from the loins down to the thighs they will reach.And those parts of the body that we think to be lighter, these we clothe with more abundant weight, and our unshaped parts have more abundant shapeliness.THE THREAD
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.Genesis joins an altar to עֹלוֹת (ʿolot), burnt offerings from the root עלה (ʿalah), the same root behind “go up” in Exodus. The shared root makes ascent both movement toward the altar and what rises from it, while Exodus also guards against bodily exposure.
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