What Does Genesis 8:20 Mean in the King James?
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.
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 named by its ascent: the Hebrew word joins a material gift to the movement of rising.
THE MEANING
Here, response takes material form: an altar is built, and clean animals are offered there. The Hebrew word for “burnt offerings” is עֹלֹת (olot, burnt offerings), from עלה (alah, to rise or ascend), so the gift carries the image of ascent. The verse holds the work of the hands and what rises in one frame.
THE ROOT
עֹלֹת
olot
GROWS FROM
עלה
to go up, rise, or ascend
“burnt offerings” in this verse is olot. Olah is an offering word formed from alah, “to rise”; the gift is named by its upward movement. That name does not replace the offering’s material reality, it lets ascent be heard within it.
ALSO GROWS
aliyah: ascent, going up
עֲלִיָּה
This noun shares the root of olah and makes the image of rising explicit.
oleh: one who ascends
עֹלֶה
This form names the one moving upward, extending the same root’s image beyond the offering.
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbeach
GROWS FROM
זבח
to slaughter or offer in sacrifice
English “altar” names a structure; mizbeach (מִזְבֵּחַ, altar) is formed from zabach (זָבַח, to sacrifice or slaughter), so the place’s name carries the act performed there. The altar and the offering are linked by their shared root.
ALSO GROWS
zavach: to slaughter or sacrifice
זָבַח
This verb names the act from which the altar’s name is formed.
zevach: a sacrifice
זֶבַח
This noun shares the altar’s root, joining the place and the offering in one word family.
נֹחַ
Noach
GROWS FROM
נוח
to rest, settle, or come to rest
Noah’s name carries the sense of rest or settling through נוח (nuach, to rest or settle). Beside an offering named for rising, the verse places rest and ascent side by side.
ALSO GROWS
nuach: to rest or settle
נוּחַ
This verb is the root associated with Noah’s name and gives the name its sense of rest.
menuchah: rest, a resting place
מְנוּחָה
This noun extends the same root into the place or state of rest carried in Noah’s name.
THE PATTERN
An offering is set before God as something that rises, voiced in prayer or embodied in the worshipper’s life.
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.Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.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 (olah, burnt offering), from עלה (alah, to rise), the same root carried by the plural עֹלֹת (olot, burnt offerings) in Genesis 8:20. The repeated word lets the image of ascent remain audible as the offering is placed and burned on the altar.
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