What Does Joshua 8:31 Mean in the King James?
As Moses the servant of the LORD commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron: and they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings.
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 for “whole” and “peace offering” share שׁלם (sh-l-m, wholeness): the altar’s structure and its sacrifice carry the same seed.
THE MEANING
The altar is built from stones left intact; offerings rise there, including shelamim, peace offerings whose name shares the root of wholeness. The verse joins the altar’s structure and its offering in a single image of completeness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that what is fit to meet God must first be cut into shape by human tools.
THE ROOT
שְׁלֵמוֹת
sheleimot
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
sh-l-m
To be complete, sound, or whole; related forms also carry the sense of well-being and peace.
The word for “whole” and the word for “peace offerings” share the consonants ש־ל־ם (sh-l-m). Together, these forms let the altar’s intact stones and its offerings echo one another as wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being, peace
שָׁלוֹם
This branch shows the deeper sense carried by “peace”: well-being and completeness, not only the absence of conflict.
shelamim: Well-being or peace offerings
שְׁלָמִים
This is the Hebrew word for the peace offerings in the verse, linking the sacrifice directly to the same root as the whole stones.
THE PATTERN
Scripture places offerings within a stone structure, then extends that image to people formed into a living house of offering.
And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.THE THREAD
And thou shalt offer peace offerings, and shalt eat there, and rejoice before the LORD thy God.This command names the sacrifice שְׁלָמִים (shelamim, well-being offerings), from שׁלם (sh-l-m, wholeness), the same root behind Joshua’s “whole” stones. Here the offering is joined with eating and rejoicing before the LORD.
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