What Does Exodus 35:16 Mean in the King James?
The altar of burnt offering, with his brasen grate, his staves, and all his vessels, the laver and his foot,
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 Hebrew name of the burnt offering means “that which ascends,” so the altar is built around a movement upward.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks in a concrete register: what is offered rises from an altar whose grate, poles, vessels, basin, and stand are named alongside it. The Hebrew word עֹלָה (ʿōlāh) means “that which ascends,” holding material structure and upward movement together. Each part belongs to an ordered whole.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that what is offered to God is detached from material life: it names the equipment and supports as part of the offering’s setting.
THE ROOT
עֹלָה
ʿōlāh
GROWS FROM
ע־ל־ה
To go up, ascend.
“burnt offering” in this verse is ʿōlāh. The Hebrew name centers on rising: an עֹלָה (ʿōlāh) is “that which ascends.” The word lets this verse hold a physical offering and its upward movement in one image.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: To go up, ascend.
עָלָה
The verb names the movement carried by the burnt offering’s name.
ʿaliyyāh: Ascent; an upper chamber.
עֲלִיָּה
This related noun keeps the root’s upward direction visible.
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbēaḥ
GROWS FROM
ז־ב־ח
To slaughter, sacrifice.
The altar’s Hebrew name grows from the root for slaughter and sacrifice. Beside עֹלָה (ʿōlāh), “that which ascends,” it gives the verse a paired movement: what is sacrificed rises.
ALSO GROWS
zāvaḥ: To slaughter, sacrifice.
זָבַח
The verb from this root names the action associated with the altar.
zevaḥ: A sacrifice; a sacrificial meal.
זֶבַח
This related noun shows the root also names what is offered.
THE PATTERN
What is offered to God takes form in material gifts, embodied prayer, and spoken praise.
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.Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.THE THREAD
But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.Exodus names the burnt offering עֹלָה (ʿōlāh), “that which ascends”; Leviticus 1:9 uses that same Hebrew word behind “burnt sacrifice.” The verse shows this ascent as an embodied act: the parts are washed, then the whole is burned on the altar.
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