What Does Exodus 29:40 Mean?
With the one lamb, a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a fourth of a hin of crushed oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine for a poured offering.
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 with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering.THE KEY
Here, the wine becomes an offering through the act of being poured out; the verse names the offering by its movement.
THE MEANING
One lamb is accompanied by exact, distinct measures: a tenth deal of fine flour mingled with a quarter hin of beaten oil, and a quarter hin of wine as a drink offering. The grain receives oil; the wine is named as the portion poured out, holding mingling and outpouring in one measured form.
THE ROOT
נֵסֶךְ
nesekh
GROWS FROM
נסך
n-s-k
To pour out, especially as a libation.
The verse does not name wine alone; נֵסֶךְ names it as a poured offering. The root makes the offering’s movement part of what it is.
ALSO GROWS
nasakh: To pour out or offer as a libation.
נָסַךְ
The verb makes the noun’s action visible: the wine is poured as an offering.
nesekh: A libation, or poured offering.
נֶסֶךְ
This is the noun used here, naming the measured wine by its role in the act of pouring.
כָּתִית
katit
GROWS FROM
כתת
k-t-t
To beat, crush, or break into pieces.
“crushed oil” in this verse is katit. The oil is specifically described as beaten: its texture carries the action that prepared it. This root can describe material being broken down and reshaped, not merely an ingredient being added.
ALSO GROWS
kathath: To beat or crush into pieces.
כָּתַת
This verb gives the preparation of the oil its physical force.
wekhittetu: And they shall beat.
וְכִתְּתוּ
The same root describes swords being beaten into plowshares; the word can name material changed into another form.
בָּלוּל
balul
GROWS FROM
בלל
b-l-l
To mix or mingle; in another context, to confuse by mixing.
“mixed” in this verse is balul. The flour is not merely accompanied by oil; it is mingled with it. Genesis also uses this root in the Babel wordplay for confused speech, showing how the same seed can describe mixing in different forms.
ALSO GROWS
balal: To mix or mingle.
בָּלַל
This verb describes the flour and oil brought together in the offering.
Bavel: Babel; linked by wordplay in Genesis to the confusing of language.
בָּבֶל
The Babel wordplay shows the root’s range from mixture to confusion, while this verse uses it for a deliberate blending.
THE PATTERN
An offering takes tangible form through distinct substances joined together and a portion poured out.
And when you bring near a gift baked in the oven, it is unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or thin unleavened wafers anointed with oil.And you shall prepare a fourth of a hin of wine for a poured offering with the rising offering or sacrifice, for one lamb.But even if I am poured out upon the offering and service of your trust, I rejoice, and rejoice together with you all.THE THREAD
And Jacob set up a standing stone in the place where he spoke with him, a stone pillar, and he poured out a drink offering upon it, and he poured oil upon it.Exodus names the wine portion נֵסֶךְ, a poured offering; Genesis uses the same root for the drink offering Jacob pours. The shared root reveals that the offering is both a substance and the act of pouring it out.
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