What Does Exodus 29:26 Mean?
You take the breast of the ram of Aaron's filling, and wave it for a wave offering before the LORD, and it is your portion.
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 thou shalt take the breast of the ram of Aaron’s consecration, and wave it for a wave offering before the LORD: and it shall be thy part.THE KEY
Under “consecration” sits the language of filling, and the rite ends with a human portion: dedication and provision meet in the same act.
THE MEANING
Here the act before the LORD remains tangible: the breast is waved, then assigned to Moses as his portion. The verse holds dedication and provision together in one rite, so what is set before God remains present as food in human life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that what is presented to God must vanish from human provision; this verse explicitly names the breast as Moses’ share.
THE ROOT
מִלֻּאִים
millu'im
GROWS FROM
מלא
m-l-ʾ
to fill, to be full
Millu’im means “fillings” and, in the ordination phrase, carries the image of filled hands. The English “consecration” also holds this concrete sense of filling, while the verse makes provision visible in the breast assigned as Moses’ portion.
ALSO GROWS
maleʾ: to fill; to be full
מָלֵא
This verb is the root’s basic action, opening the filling image carried by the name of the rite.
millu'im: fillings; ordination or consecration
מִלֻּאִים
This is the term used for Aaron’s ordination, linking setting apart with the image of filling.
תְּנוּפָה
tenufah
GROWS FROM
נוף
n-w-p
to move to and fro; to wave
“wave” in this verse is tenufah. The Hebrew pairs the verb of waving with the noun for the waving rite. The offering is marked by movement before the LORD, and that movement stands beside the assignment of a share.
ALSO GROWS
nuph: to wave; to move to and fro
נוּף
The verb names the action performed with the breast in the verse.
munaf: waved; moved to and fro
מוּנָף
This related form describes an object by the same motion that marks the offering.
לְמָנָה
lemanah
GROWS FROM
מנה
m-n-h
to count, appoint, or allot
The word for “part” carries the sense of an assigned allotment, not an accidental remainder. The verse makes the allocation plain: the breast is Moses’ share.
ALSO GROWS
manah: to count, appoint, or allot
מָנָה
The verb expresses the act of assigning that gives a portion its place.
manah: a portion or share
מְנָה
This noun names the allotted share that the verse gives to Moses.
THE PATTERN
What is set apart before the LORD remains joined to human provision as an assigned share.
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.The LORD is the portion of my share and of my cup; you hold fast my lot.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
The LORD is the portion of my share and of my cup; you hold fast my lot.Exodus says the breast becomes Moses’ portion; Psalm 16:5 uses the same root, manah, for a portion or allotment. The connection opens the concrete share in Exodus into the image of the LORD as the speaker’s own portion.
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