What Does Ezra 8:35 Mean?
Also the children of those who had been carried away, who had come up out of the captivity, drew near to the God of Israel with rising offerings, twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety and six rams, seventy and seven lambs, and twelve male goats as an offering for falling short; all this was a rising offering 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
Also the children of those that had been carried away, which were come out of the captivity, offered burnt offerings unto the God of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel, ninety and six rams, seventy and seven lambs, twelve he goats for a sin offering: all this was a burnt offering unto the LORD.THE KEY
The returned ones do not draw near for themselves alone: their offering carries all Israel with them.
THE MEANING
When you emerge from confinement, your return can hold others in its reach. The passage names the offering as drawing near for all Israel and includes the offering for the missing within what rises to the LORD.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that leaving captivity restores only the person who escaped: here, return carries the whole people into the approach.
THE ROOT
הִקְרִיבוּ
hiqrivu
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־ב
Q-R-B
Draw near, approach.
“drew near” in this verse is hiqrivu. The word translated “offered” means bringing near. The act is named as an approach, and the verse makes that approach reach beyond the returned ones to all Israel.
ALSO GROWS
qorban: An offering; a drawing-near gift.
קָרְבָּן
This related word makes the offering itself an act of approach.
qarov: Near, close.
קָרוֹב
The same root links the offering with nearness.
חַטָּאת
chatat
GROWS FROM
ח־ט־א
Ḥ-Ṭ-ʾ
Miss, err, go wrong.
“as an offering for falling short” in this verse is chatat. The offering’s name comes from the root for missing or going wrong. The verse places this offering for the missing among what rises to the LORD, holding repair and approach together.
ALSO GROWS
chata: To miss or err.
חָטָא
The verb shows the root’s sense of missing beneath the offering’s name.
chet: A missing, an error.
חֵטְא
This noun shares the root and brings the idea of missing into view.
עֹלָה
olah
GROWS FROM
ע־ל־ה
ʿ-L-H
Rise, go up, ascend.
“rising offerings” in this verse is olah. Olah means “what rises.” After naming several kinds of offerings, the verse calls the whole offering an olah, gathering them under the image of what rises to the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
alah: To rise or go up.
עָלָה
The verb carries the upward movement contained in olah.
ma'alah: An ascent, step, or upward degree.
מַעֲלָה
This related noun keeps the root’s sense of rising visible.
THE PATTERN
Coming out from confinement opens into a shared approach to God that carries a people with it.
And he said, Surely I will be with you, and this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.And they offered at the dedication of this house of God a hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs; and as an offering for the falling short of all Israel, twelve he-goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.Let us draw near with a true heart in the fullness of trust, our hearts sprinkled from a burdened shared sight, and our bodies bathed in clean waters.THE THREAD
But for me, drawing near to God is good; I have set my shelter in the Lord LORD, to recount all your works.Ezra’s “offered” comes from qarav (קָרַב, qarav), “to draw near”; Psalm 73:28 uses the same root for drawing near to God. The psalm names as good the very approach that Ezra’s offering enacts.
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