What Does Ezekiel 46:20 Mean in the King James?
Then said he unto me, This is the place where the priests shall boil the trespass offering and the sin offering, where they shall bake the meat offering; that they bear them not out into the utter court, to sanctify the people.
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 offerings stay inside because what is set apart can change the status of the people it reaches.
THE MEANING
The offerings remain in the priests’ designated place because their set-apart status can reach the people in the outer court. Here, the boundary governs who encounters what is sacred and the effect it has.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that sacredness is only private intention: what is set apart can affect those it reaches.
THE ROOT
לְקַדֵּשׁ
leqaddesh
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
Set apart; mark as distinct.
English “sanctify” can sound like an abstract religious act, but this root names a change of status: making something distinct from the ordinary. Here that change can reach the people, so the boundary around the offerings governs who encounters what has been set apart.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart; distinct.
קָדוֹשׁ
It describes the status the offerings carry into the outer court.
miqdash: Sanctuary; set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The word connects the offerings’ status to the place where they are prepared.
חַטָּאת
chatat
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
Miss; err; go wrong.
“sin offering” in this verse is chatat. The offering’s name grows from the language of missing or going wrong. The verse holds that missing alongside set-apartness: what addresses the missing is handled within a boundary because its status has effects beyond the priests.
ALSO GROWS
chata: To miss or err.
חָטָא
The verb shows the root’s movement: a deviation from the mark.
chet: A miss; an offense.
חֵטְא
This noun keeps the offering connected to the missing it addresses.
אָשָׁם
asham
GROWS FROM
אשם
ʾ-sh-m
Be liable; incur guilt.
“trespass offering” in this verse is asham. This offering names liability, while the sin offering names missing; the verse places both within the same prescribed space. Their different roots keep distinct forms of disorder visible even as they share the same boundary.
ALSO GROWS
ashem: Guilty; liable.
אָשֵׁם
It names the state addressed by the trespass offering.
ashmah: Guilt; culpability.
אַשְׁמָה
It makes the offering’s connection to liability explicit.
THE PATTERN
What is set apart can affect what it reaches, so its boundaries govern who encounters it.
Seven days thou shalt make an atonement for the altar, and sanctify it; and it shall be an altar most holy: whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy.And when they go forth into the utter court, even into the utter court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments.For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.THE THREAD
And when they go forth into the utter court, even into the utter court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments.Both verses use קדש (q-d-sh, set apart) for what can happen to the people through contact with something consecrated. The offerings stay in their appointed place here, just as the priests leave their ministry garments in the holy chambers before entering the people’s court.
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