What Does Exodus 29:20 Mean in the King James?
Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.
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
The blood marks the ear that receives, the hand that acts, the foot that moves, and the altar as one field of consecration.
THE MEANING
The verse presents consecration as reaching the places where you receive, act, and move, while the altar receives the same blood. Service here touches the embodied person, not only an inward intention.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The idea that sacred service belongs only to thought or to a sacred place falls away: the verse marks the ear, hand, foot, and altar together.
THE ROOT
אֹזֶן
ozen
GROWS FROM
א־ז־ן
ʾ-z-n
To hear, listen, or give ear; a related form names balances or scales.
English treats the ear as a body part, but ozen belongs to the Hebrew family of words for listening and attending. With blood placed on the ear, the rite marks the faculty of receiving, not just a point on the body.
ALSO GROWS
he'ezin: Listen; give ear.
הֶאֱזִין
This verb from the same family makes the ear’s placement resonate with attentive receiving.
moznayim: Balances; scales.
מֹאזְנַיִם
This related form carries a sense of weighing, adding a resonance of careful discernment to the marked ear.
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbeach
GROWS FROM
ז־ב־ח
z-b-ḥ
To slaughter or offer sacrifice.
The Hebrew name for the altar grows from the verb for slaughtering or sacrificing. The blood on the priests and around the altar therefore belongs to one act of offering, rather than to separate bodily and sanctuary gestures.
ALSO GROWS
zavach: Slaughter; sacrifice.
זָבַח
This verb shares the altar’s root and names the offering at the center of the verse’s rite.
zevach: Sacrifice; sacrificial meal.
זֶבַח
This noun from the same root links the altar with the offering and its shared meal.
THE PATTERN
Consecration reaches the person and the altar through the same life-marking sign.
And he slew it; and Moses took of the blood of it, and put it upon the tip of Aaron’s right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot.How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?THE THREAD
For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.Leviticus names the life carried in blood and places that blood on the altar. That link opens this verse as a marking of the body’s receiving, acting, and moving with the life brought to the altar.
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