What Does Ezekiel 40:38 Mean in the King James?
And the chambers and the entries thereof were by the posts of the gates, where they washed the burnt offering.
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 burnt offering is an ascent offering, and the gate is where it is washed before it rises.
THE MEANING
The verse places the washing at the gate: what rises is washed before it enters the fire. עֹלָה (ʿolah, ascending offering) keeps ascent inside the offering’s name. The image holds cleansing at the threshold where ascent begins.
THE ROOT
עֹלָה
ʿolah
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-l-h
Go up, ascend.
“burnt offering” in this verse is ʿolah. The offering’s name carries the motion: it is an offering that rises. English names the ritual form, while the Hebrew root also places washing before an ascent.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: Go up, ascend.
עָלָה
This verb supplies the motion held in the offering’s name.
maʿălāh: An ascent, step, or degree.
מַעֲלָה
The same root can name a path upward, making the offering’s ascent part of a wider language of rising.
וּפִתְחָה
u-pitḥāh
GROWS FROM
פתח
p-t-ḥ
Open; make an opening.
The word translated “entry” grows from the root for opening, so the place is named as a passage. The verse locates the washing at that opening beside the gateposts, on the edge of movement.
ALSO GROWS
petaḥ: An entrance or opening.
פֶּתַח
This noun names the passage where the washing takes place.
pataḥ: To open.
פָּתַח
The verb reveals the action beneath the entry: a way is opened through the boundary.
maphteaḥ: A key.
מַפְתֵּחַ
The key belongs to the same opening-root, linking access with the passage named here.
THE PATTERN
At the point of approach or ascent, cleansing is placed before entry or rising.
When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the LORD:Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.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.Leviticus uses עֹלָה (ʿolah, ascending offering) for the burnt offering and names the washing of its inner parts and legs before the whole is burned. Ezekiel places that washing at the gate, binding cleansing to ascent through the shared root.
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