What Does Exodus 29:1 Mean?
And this is the thing that you do to them, to set them apart, to serve me as priest. You take one young bull and two whole rams,
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 is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto me in the priest’s office: Take one young bullock, and two rams without blemish,THE KEY
The verse makes set-apart service visible: consecration is joined to a whole offering.
THE MEANING
Set-apart service takes visible form here in an ordered act of offering. The animals are described as whole and sound, holding consecration, service, and wholeness together in the same scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the idea that holiness is only an inward label: here, set-apartness becomes visible in an act of service and offering.
THE ROOT
לְקַדֵּשׁ
leqaddēš
GROWS FROM
ק־ד־שׁ
q-d-sh
To be set apart, distinct for a purpose.
“to set them apart” in this verse is leqaddēš. The word translated “hallow” comes from the same root as words for what is set apart and the place set apart. Consecration here is not merely a label; it marks people out for service.
ALSO GROWS
qādôsh: Set apart
קָדוֹשׁ
This is the familiar description of what belongs to God; it shows the shared root at work as a quality of being set apart.
miqdāsh: Sanctuary, a set-apart place
מִקְדָּשׁ
The same root names a place set apart, linking the priests’ consecration with the sacred space in which their service takes place.
תָּמִים
tāmîm
GROWS FROM
ת־מ־ם
t-m-m
To be complete, whole, brought to fullness.
“Without blemish” is tāmîm: whole, complete, sound. The root family also describes integrity, so the offering’s physical wholeness carries a wider sense of completeness.
ALSO GROWS
tām: Whole, complete, blameless
תָּם
This related form shows that the offering’s soundness belongs to a wider word-family of wholeness.
tōm: Completeness, integrity
תֹּם
This branch extends the idea from an unblemished offering to integrity and completeness.
THE PATTERN
Set-apart service takes shape through an offering presented to God.
And this is the thing that you do to them, to set them apart, to serve me as priest. You take one young bull and two whole rams,Therefore I urge you, brothers, through the compassions of God, to set your bodies beside God as a living sacrifice, set apart, well-pleasing to him, which is your true service.You also, as living stones, are built up into a house of breath, a set-apart priesthood, to carry up sacrifices of breath, well received by God through Jesus, the Anointed One.THE THREAD
For seven days you cover the altar, and set it apart. It is an altar most set apart. Whatever touches the altar is set apart.The same קדש (q-d-sh, set apart) root appears in “sanctify” and “holy.” The chapter shows what the opening word hints: set-apartness reaches from the consecrated altar to whatever touches it.
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