What Does Exodus 29:38 Mean in the King James?

Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually.

Exodus 29:38 · 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.

THE KEY

The verse locates the sacred in recurrence: the offering returns each day, not as a singular spectacle.

THE MEANING

Your days are shaped by what keeps returning. This verse gives the altar a steady rhythm: two young lambs offered day by day, continually. The offering belongs to the shape of ordinary time.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It dissolves the belief that sacred life happens only in rare, dramatic moments; here, its form is a steady daily return.

THE ROOT

תַּעֲשֶׂה

taʿaseh

GROWS FROM

עשה

Do, make, carry out.

The KJV renders ⁨תַּעֲשֶׂה⁩ (taʿaseh, “you shall do/make”) as “offer.” That broad action-word lets the offering appear as an enacted work, carried out in the day’s repeated rhythm.

ALSO GROWS

ʿasah: Do, make.

עָשָׂה

This is the verb beneath the verse’s instruction: what happens at the altar is something done.

maʿaseh: Deed, work.

מַעֲשֶׂה

This related noun keeps the offering connected to an action or work, not only to the animal being offered.

מִזְבֵּחַ

mizbeach

GROWS FROM

זבח

Sacrifice, slaughter.

The altar’s Hebrew name shares the root ⁨זבח⁩ (zavach, “sacrifice”) with the act and offering itself. Place and action stay joined: the name of the altar carries what happens there.

ALSO GROWS

zavach: Sacrifice, slaughter.

זָבַח

The verb names the action carried out at the altar.

zevach: Sacrifice, animal offering.

זֶבַח

This noun shares the altar’s root, linking the place to what is brought there.

THE PATTERN

Scripture gives offering a daily rhythm and extends its language into prayer.

And thou shalt say unto them, This is the offering made by fire which ye shall offer unto the LORD; two lambs of the first year without spot day by day, for a continual burnt offering.

Numbers 28:3 · KJVThis repeats the daily pair of lambs and names the offering continual.

Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

Psalm 141:2 · KJVPrayer and lifted hands take the language of offering into the recurring movement of a day.

And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:

Hebrews 10:11 · KJVThe verse names the same daily repetition while exposing the limit of repeating the same sacrifices.

THE THREAD

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Psalm 51:17 · KJV

The Hebrew word for “sacrifices,” ⁨זִבְחֵי⁩ (zivchei, sacrifices), shares the ⁨זבח⁩ (zavach, sacrifice) root with ⁨מִזְבֵּחַ⁩ (mizbeach, altar) here. Psalm 51 carries that offering-root into the image of broken breath and heart, opening what may be brought before God beyond the daily lambs.

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