What Does Ezekiel 43:18 Mean in the King James?
And he said unto me, Son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it, to offer burnt offerings thereon, and to sprinkle blood thereon.
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 altar is named from slaughter, so even the word for the sacred place carries the violence of the offering it receives.
THE MEANING
You meet sacred order here as a concrete sequence: an altar is made, an offering rises, and blood is cast upon it. The verse holds the offering together with slaughter, blood, and prescribed procedure, keeping its material violence in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that sacred order is bloodless or merely inward: here the altar’s service includes slaughter, blood, and fire.
THE ROOT
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbeach
GROWS FROM
זבח
z-b-ḥ
To slaughter or sacrifice.
The Hebrew name for the altar grows from the word for slaughtering and sacrifice. Its name carries the physical act the verse prescribes, joining the place to the taking of life and the offering made there.
ALSO GROWS
zavach: To slaughter or sacrifice.
זָבַח
The verb names the act that gives the altar its root meaning.
zevach: A sacrifice.
זֶבַח
This noun from the same root ties the altar to the life offered upon it.
עֹלָה
olah
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-l-h
To rise or ascend.
“burnt offering” in this verse is olah. The offering is named as an ascent: what is placed on the altar goes up. The word holds the act of burning together with the movement of rising.
ALSO GROWS
ʿalah: To go up or ascend.
עָלָה
This verb supplies the movement carried in the word for the offering.
maʿalah: An ascent or step upward.
מַעֲלָה
This related noun makes the root’s upward movement visible in another form.
לִזְרֹק
lizroq
GROWS FROM
זרק
z-r-q
To throw or cast.
The Hebrew verb carries the force of casting, giving the blood a directed physical movement onto the altar. English “sprinkle” can sound delicate; the root keeps the action concrete and deliberate.
ALSO GROWS
zaraq: To throw or cast.
זָרַק
This is the verb’s basic action, which the verse applies to the blood.
mizraq: A basin used in altar service.
מִזְרָק
The related vessel name links the act of casting to the material tools of the rite.
THE PATTERN
Sacred rites are enacted through concrete, prescribed handling of blood.
And thou shalt take of the blood of the bullock, and put it upon the horns of the altar with thy finger, and pour all the blood beside the bottom of the altar.And he shall kill the bullock before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,THE THREAD
And he shall kill the bullock before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.Both verses use זָרַק (zaraq, to cast or sprinkle) for what happens to the blood. Leviticus places it round about the altar after the animal is killed, exposing the physical sequence Ezekiel’s ordinance states compactly.
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