What Does Ezekiel 46:11 Mean?
In the feasts and in the appointed times the grain gift is an ephah to a young bull, an ephah to a ram, and to the lambs as his hand gives, and a hin of oil to an ephah.
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 in the feasts and in the solemnities the meat offering shall be an ephah to a bullock, and an ephah to a ram, and to the lambs as he is able to give, and an hin of oil to an ephah.THE KEY
The lambs’ offering is measured by what the giver’s hand can give, so capacity itself becomes part of the sacred measure.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a measured offering before you: an ephah for the bull and for the ram, while the lambs’ measure follows what the giver’s hand can give, with oil measured alongside. It places exact quantities beside a portion shaped by the giver’s available means.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a sacred offering must look identical in every hand; the lambs’ measure follows what the giver can give.
THE ROOT
מַתַּת יָדוֹ
mattat yado
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
Give, put, or set in place.
“as his hand gives” in this verse is mattat yado. The phrase translated “as he is able to give” is literally “the gift of his hand,” making capacity a tangible measure. This word-family moves between giving and gift, so the lamb portion is described through what the hand can place into the offering.
ALSO GROWS
natan: Give, put, or set.
נָתַן
The root names the act of giving that makes the offering possible.
mattanah: Gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This related form makes the link between the giver’s hand and the offering’s measure explicit.
THE PATTERN
The measure of a gift is joined to what is actually in the giver’s hand.
Each one shall give according to the gift of his hand, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you.But who am I, and what is my people, that we should hold the strength to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come from you, and from your hand have we given to you.For if the leaning heart is there first, it is well received according to what one has, and not according to what one does not have.THE THREAD
Each one shall give according to the gift of his hand, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you.Ezekiel’s mattat yado (מַתַּת יָדוֹ, “gift of his hand”) echoes Deuteronomy’s kematnat yado (כְּמַתְּנַת יָדוֹ, “according to the gift of his hand”), both tied to נתן (natan, “give”). Deuteronomy adds that the hand’s gift corresponds to what the LORD has given.
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