What Does Exodus 29:41 Mean?
And the other lamb you offer at evening, and you do with it according to the gift of the morning, and according to its poured offering, for a scent that settles, an offering made by fire to the LORD.
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 the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and shalt do thereto according to the meat offering of the morning, and according to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD.THE KEY
The evening offering repeats the morning’s pattern, and its “sweet savour” is named with a word rooted in rest.
THE MEANING
The day is held at both ends by the same act: the evening lamb follows the morning’s pattern. Its fragrance is called restful or soothing, so the offering marks the day’s settling before the LORD. The closing hour has a place in the day’s rhythm as fully as its beginning.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The day’s meaning belongs only to its beginning; this verse gives the evening an offering that follows the morning’s pattern.
THE ROOT
רֵיחַ נִיחֹחַ
rēaḥ nîḥōaḥ
GROWS FROM
נוח
To settle or come to rest.
“scent that settles” in this verse is rēaḥ nîḥōaḥ. The phrase’s adjective, נִיחֹחַ (nîḥōaḥ), is formed from a root meaning rest or settling. The same root appears in מְנוּחָה (menūḥāh), “rest” or “resting place,” and is associated with נֹחַ (Nōaḥ), Noah’s name; the fragrance carries an echo of settling, beyond the English sense of something simply pleasant to smell.
ALSO GROWS
menūḥāh: Rest; a resting place.
מְנוּחָה
This form makes the root’s sense of rest explicit, bringing that shade into the phrase translated “sweet savour.”
Nōaḥ: Noah, a name associated with rest.
נֹחַ
The name carries the same root’s rest-sense; Genesis 5:29 also links Noah’s arrival with relief from labor.
THE PATTERN
A recurring offering gives the day’s opening and closing the same shape, while devotion can continue beyond those edges.
One lamb you offer in the morning, and the other lamb you offer at evening.Let my prayer be set before you as smoke, and the lifting of my palms as the evening offering.Through him, then, let us always carry up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.THE THREAD
And the LORD smelled the fragrance of rest, and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground for man's sake, for the shaping of man's heart is evil from his youth, and I will not again strike down every living thing, as I have done.Genesis uses the same Hebrew phrase, רֵיחַ נִיחֹחַ (rēaḥ nîḥōaḥ), when the LORD smells an offering. Its rest-rooted word for fragrance returns here at the day’s close, placing the evening offering within that same image.
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