What Does Joshua 8:31 Mean?
As Moses, the servant of the LORD, commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the instruction of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no one has waved any iron. And they raised on it rising offerings to the LORD, and slaughtered wholeness offerings.
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
As Moses the servant of the LORD commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron: and they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings.THE KEY
The Hebrew for “whole” and “peace offering” share שׁלם (sh-l-m, wholeness): the altar’s structure and its sacrifice carry the same seed.
THE MEANING
The altar is built from stones left intact; offerings rise there, including shelamim, peace offerings whose name shares the root of wholeness. The verse joins the altar’s structure and its offering in a single image of completeness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that what is fit to meet God must first be cut into shape by human tools.
THE ROOT
שְׁלֵמוֹת
sheleimot
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
sh-l-m
To be complete, sound, or whole; related forms also carry the sense of well-being and peace.
“whole stones” in this verse is sheleimot. The word for “whole” and the word for “peace offerings” share the consonants ש־ל־ם (sh-l-m). Together, these forms let the altar’s intact stones and its offerings echo one another as wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being, peace
שָׁלוֹם
This branch shows the deeper sense carried by “peace”: well-being and completeness, not only the absence of conflict.
shelamim: Well-being or peace offerings
שְׁלָמִים
This is the Hebrew word for the peace offerings in the verse, linking the sacrifice directly to the same root as the whole stones.
THE PATTERN
Scripture places offerings within a stone structure, then extends that image to people formed into a living house of offering.
And if you make me an altar of stones, you shall not build it of cut stone, for if you wave your blade over it, you have profaned it.You also, as living stones, are built up into a house of breath, a set-apart priesthood, to carry up sacrifices of breath, well received by God through Jesus, the Anointed One.THE THREAD
And you shall slaughter wholeness offerings, and you shall eat there, and rejoice before the face of the LORD your God.This command names the sacrifice שְׁלָמִים (shelamim, well-being offerings), from שׁלם (sh-l-m, wholeness), the same root behind Joshua’s “whole” stones. Here the offering is joined with eating and rejoicing before the LORD.
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