What Does Genesis 8:20 Mean?
And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and sent up rising offerings on the altar.
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 Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.THE KEY
The burnt offering is named by its ascent: the Hebrew word joins a material gift to the movement of rising.
THE MEANING
Here, response takes material form: an altar is built, and clean animals are offered there. The Hebrew word for “burnt offerings” is עֹלֹת (olot, burnt offerings), from עלה (alah, to rise or ascend), so the gift carries the image of ascent. The verse holds the work of the hands and what rises in one frame.
THE ROOT
עֹלֹת
olot
GROWS FROM
עלה
to go up, rise, or ascend
“rising offerings” in this verse is olot. Olah is an offering word formed from alah, “to rise”; the gift is named by its upward movement. That name does not replace the offering’s material reality, it lets ascent be heard within it.
ALSO GROWS
aliyah: ascent, going up
עֲלִיָּה
This noun shares the root of olah and makes the image of rising explicit.
oleh: one who ascends
עֹלֶה
This form names the one moving upward, extending the same root’s image beyond the offering.
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbeach
GROWS FROM
זבח
to slaughter or offer in sacrifice
English “altar” names a structure; mizbeach (מִזְבֵּחַ, altar) is formed from zabach (זָבַח, to sacrifice or slaughter), so the place’s name carries the act performed there. The altar and the offering are linked by their shared root.
ALSO GROWS
zavach: to slaughter or sacrifice
זָבַח
This verb names the act from which the altar’s name is formed.
zevach: a sacrifice
זֶבַח
This noun shares the altar’s root, joining the place and the offering in one word family.
נֹחַ
Noach
GROWS FROM
נוח
to rest, settle, or come to rest
Noah’s name carries the sense of rest or settling through נוח (nuach, to rest or settle). Beside an offering named for rising, the verse places rest and ascent side by side.
ALSO GROWS
nuach: to rest or settle
נוּחַ
This verb is the root associated with Noah’s name and gives the name its sense of rest.
menuchah: rest, a resting place
מְנוּחָה
This noun extends the same root into the place or state of rest carried in Noah’s name.
THE PATTERN
An offering is set before God as something that rises, voiced in prayer or embodied in the worshipper’s life.
And its inward parts and its legs he shall wash in water, and the priest shall send all of it up in smoke upon the altar, a rising offering, an offering of fire, a fragrance that settles to the LORD.Let my prayer be set before you as smoke, and the lifting of my palms as the evening offering.Therefore I urge you, brothers, through the compassions of God, to set your bodies beside God as a living sacrifice, set apart, well-pleasing to him, which is your true service.THE THREAD
And its inward parts and its legs he shall wash in water, and the priest shall send all of it up in smoke upon the altar, a rising offering, an offering of fire, a fragrance that settles to the LORD.Leviticus uses עֹלָה (olah, burnt offering), from עלה (alah, to rise), the same root carried by the plural עֹלֹת (olot, burnt offerings) in Genesis 8:20. The repeated word lets the image of ascent remain audible as the offering is placed and burned on the altar.
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