What Does Exodus 29:33 Mean?
They eat those things wherewith the covering was made, to fill their hands and to set them apart. But a stranger does not eat of it, because they are set apart.
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 they shall eat those things wherewith the atonement was made, to consecrate and to sanctify them: but a stranger shall not eat thereof, because they are holy.THE KEY
The meal binds covering to consecration: what is used in making atonement is eaten as hands are filled and people are set apart.
THE MEANING
Covering becomes embodied in the meal eaten by those whose hands are being filled for service. The meal has a boundary: the outsider does not eat because both the food and the people are set apart.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that a holy meal is open to anyone simply because it is food: this passage marks a boundary around who receives it.
THE ROOT
כֻּפַּר
kuppar
GROWS FROM
כפר
kaphar
Cover, cover over.
The word translated “atonement” carries the sense of covering. Its root links the offering with other forms of covering, so the meal belongs to a movement of covering and consecration.
ALSO GROWS
kippur: Covering; atonement.
כִּפּוּר
It shares the covering-root behind the offering in this verse.
kopher: A covering payment or ransom.
כֹּפֶר
It shows the root’s reach from covering to a means of release.
kapporet: The cover of the ark.
כַּפֹּרֶת
The same root names a physical cover associated with the place of atonement.
לְמַלֵּא אֶת־יָדָם
lemallēʾ et-yadam
GROWS FROM
מלא
male
Fill, make full.
The Hebrew phrase behind “consecrate” says “to fill their hands.” The verse connects being set apart with hands made full for service, giving consecration a concrete, embodied shape.
ALSO GROWS
male: To fill, be full.
מָלֵא
It is the verb behind the phrase “fill their hands.”
melo: Fullness; that which fills.
מְלֹא
It shows the same root moving from the act of filling to its completed state.
לְקַדֵּשׁ
leqaddēsh
GROWS FROM
קדש
qadash
Set apart as sacred.
“set apart” in this verse is leqaddēsh. The root links sanctifying with being holy and with the sanctuary itself. Here, setting apart is not a vague quality: it governs who eats the food and where they belong.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Holy; set apart.
קָדוֹשׁ
It is the quality named at the end of this verse.
miqdash: Sanctuary; set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
It shows the root marking a place as well as people and food.
THE PATTERN
The food of an altar marks participation: eating it places the eater within a set-apart relation.
Why have you not eaten the offering for falling short in the set-apart place, for it is most set apart, and God has given it to you to carry the crookedness of the assembly, to cover them before the face of the LORD?Look at Israel according to the flesh. Are not those who eat the slain offerings sharers in common of the altar?We have an altar, from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.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.This verse repeats the covering-root כפר (kaphar, cover) and the set-apart root קדש (qadash, set apart), then extends holiness to whatever touches the altar. It reveals the meal as part of a larger movement of covering, setting apart, and participation.
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