What Does 1 Samuel 6:14 Mean in the King James?

And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Beth-shemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine a burnt offering unto the LORD.

1 Samuel 6:14 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The offering is named for ascent, and the verb that offers the cows carries the same root.

THE MEANING

Here a cart comes to rest, its wood is split, and the kine are offered to the LORD; ascent is already present in the word for offering. The verse holds stopping and rising in one scene: the cart stands, yet the offering goes up.

THE ROOT

עֹלָה

ʿolah

GROWS FROM

עלה

⁨עָלָה⁩ (ʿalah): to go up, ascend.

⁨עֹלָה⁩ (ʿolah), rendered “burnt offering,” is an offering of ascent. The verse also says ⁨הֶעֱלוּ⁩ (heʿelu, “they brought up” or “offered”): the action and the offering carry the same root, so English hides ascent in both.

ALSO GROWS

ʿalah: to go up, ascend

עָלָה

This verb makes explicit the motion already held in ⁨עֹלָה⁩, the offering named in the verse.

ʿaliyah: ascent, going up

עֲלִיָּה

This noun preserves the same root’s sense of upward movement, revealing the motion inside the offering’s name.

THE PATTERN

What is present is raised toward God as an offering.

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.

Genesis 8:20 · KJVAnimals already present become burnt offerings on an altar, echoing the offering made here.

Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

1 Kings 18:38 · KJVThe sacrifice, wood, and altar materials are all taken up into the offering before the LORD.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Romans 12:1 · KJVThe image of offering extends to the body itself, presented as a living sacrifice to God.

THE THREAD

And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

Genesis 22:13 · KJV

Its Hebrew uses ⁨וַיַּעֲלֵהוּ⁩ (vayyaʿalehu, “he brought him up” or “offered him up”) and ⁨לְעֹלָה⁩ (leʿolah, “as an ascending offering”), both from ⁨עלה⁩ (ʿalah, “ascend”). The same verb-and-offering pairing appears here, carrying the motion of ascent inside “burnt offering.”

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