What Does Exodus 29:15 Mean?

You also take one ram, and Aaron and his sons lean their hands upon the head of the ram.

Exodus 29:15 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Thou shalt also take one ram; and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram.

THE KEY

The Hebrew verb carries the image of leaning or supporting: the hands make the offerers’ relation to the ram bodily visible.

THE MEANING

Here, the offering meets the people who bring it through their hands on its head. The gesture makes that relation tangible, with the Hebrew verb carrying the sense of leaning upon or supporting.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It loosens the belief that an offering can be detached from those who bring it: their hands rest directly on the ram’s head.

THE ROOT

וְסָמְכוּ

vesamkhu

GROWS FROM

סמך

samekh-mem-kaph

To lean upon or support.

“lean their hands upon” in this verse is vesamkhu. The verb translated “put” carries the image of leaning or placing support. In this gesture, the hands make the offerers’ relation to the ram embodied and visible.

ALSO GROWS

uphold: One who supports or sustains.

סוֹמֵךְ

This form of the same root shows the image of support contained in the hand-placing verb.

sāmukh: Supported or resting upon.

סָמוּךְ

The root can describe what leans on something; that adds weight to the hands resting on the ram’s head.

THE PATTERN

A hand placed on another makes an otherwise invisible relation tangible through contact.

And he shall lean his hand upon the head of the rising offering, and it shall be pleasing for him, to cover over him.

Leviticus 1:4 · SDVThe same Hebrew hand-on-head formula makes the offerer’s relation to the offering bodily visible.

And the LORD said to Moses, Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the breath, and lean your hand upon him.

Numbers 27:18 · SDVThe same Hebrew root makes Joshua’s appointment tangible through the laying on of a hand.

Then they laid their hands on them, and they took hold of the Set-Apart Breath.

Acts 8:17 · SDVHere, too, hands are laid and the recipients receive; the relation is enacted through touch.

THE THREAD

And he shall lean his hand upon the head of the rising offering, and it shall be pleasing for him, to cover over him.

Leviticus 1:4 · SDV

Leviticus uses the same root ⁨סמך⁩ (sāmakh, lean or support) in its formula for placing a hand on an offering’s head. That shared verb lets the gesture carry bodily association: the people meet what is presented through the hand on its head.

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