What Does Exodus 23:18 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
What the KJV calls “remain” is a verb for lodging: the fat is not allowed to spend the night as residue.
THE MEANING
This verse keeps an offering within two concrete boundaries: its blood is not presented with leaven, and its fat does not pass the night. The wording binds what accompanies the offering to the time its remains may stay.
THE ROOT
חָמֵץ
ḥāmēts
GROWS FROM
ח־מ־ץ
ḥ-m-ṣ
To be sour or fermented; leavened matter.
English makes “leavened” modify bread, while the Hebrew names chametz itself. The same root reaches vinegar, connecting the prohibited leaven with sour fermentation without turning the verse’s concrete restriction into a metaphor.
ALSO GROWS
chametz: Leaven or fermented matter.
חָמֵץ
This is the substance the verse bars from accompanying sacrificial blood.
ḥōmets: Vinegar, a sour fermented liquid.
חֹמֶץ
This branch carries the root’s sour, fermented sense beyond bread.
יָלִין
yālin
GROWS FROM
ל־ו־ן
l-w-n
To lodge or spend the night.
The verb translated “remain” means to lodge overnight. The verse does not merely forbid keeping the fat indefinitely; it names the night as the boundary it may not cross.
ALSO GROWS
lin: To lodge or stay overnight.
לִין
It is the verbal form behind the overnight limit in the verse.
malon: A lodging place or inn.
מָלוֹן
This related noun preserves the root’s sense of staying the night.
תִּזְבַּח
tizbaḥ
GROWS FROM
ז־ב־ח
z-b-ḥ
To slaughter for a sacrifice or sacrificial meal.
“offer / sacrifice” in this verse is tizbaḥ. The Hebrew repeats the same root in “offer” and “sacrifice,” where English uses different forms. The action and the offering are joined by one seed; the verse speaks of the blood as belonging to that sacrificial act.
ALSO GROWS
zāvaḥ: To slaughter or sacrifice.
זָבַח
This is the action named by “offer” in the verse.
mizbēaḥ: Altar, the place of sacrifice.
מִזְבֵּחַ
The related word ties the act of slaughter to the place where the offering is brought.
THE PATTERN
An offering is held within its appointed form and time: leaven stays outside, and what is sacrificed does not cross into morning.
And there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coast seven days; neither shall there any thing of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all night until the morning.And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning.Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:THE THREAD
And there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coast seven days; neither shall there any thing of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all night until the morning.The same verb לון (l-w-n, “lodge overnight”) names what must not remain into morning, while the first clause excludes leaven across seven days. Their pairing shows the limits on mixture and overnight keeping traveling together.
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