What Does Leviticus 1:11 Mean in the King James?
And he shall kill it on the side of the altar northward before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall sprinkle his blood round about upon 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 Hebrew calls the altar a slaughter-place, so death is carried inside the name of the sacred place itself.
THE MEANING
The verse places a sacred act before you without concealment: the animal is killed, and its blood is sprinkled around the altar. The altar’s Hebrew name carries the meaning of slaughter and sacrifice, keeping the offering’s death within the identity of the place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that this sacred scene is free of violence: the verse names the killing and makes blood visible around the altar.
THE ROOT
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbēaḥ
GROWS FROM
זבח
zabach
To slaughter or sacrifice.
The altar is not named for its appearance but for the slaughter and sacrifice that take place there. Since the blood is spread around it, the Hebrew name keeps the offering’s death within the sacred place itself.
ALSO GROWS
zāvaḥ: To slaughter or sacrifice.
זָבַח
This is the action performed in the verse: the animal is killed.
zevaḥ: A slaughtered offering or sacrifice.
זֶבַח
This branch names the offering as an act of slaughter, linking what happens to the altar with what the altar is called.
זָרַק
zāraq
GROWS FROM
זרק
zaraq
To throw, scatter, dash, or sprinkle.
“sprinkle” in this verse is zāraq. The verb holds both the force of throwing and the particular act of sprinkling. Blood is not merely present in the scene; it is actively cast across the altar’s surface.
ALSO GROWS
mizraq: A basin or bowl.
מִזְרָק
This related word names a vessel used to hold liquid, while zāraq names its scattering; together they echo the handling and placement of blood.
zeriqah: Sprinkling or casting.
זְרִיקָה
This noun preserves the action of scattering found in the verse’s verb.
THE PATTERN
The altar ritual makes blood visible at the point of approach, tying its work to life given.
And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.THE THREAD
And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.Exodus uses the same Hebrew verb, זָרַק (zāraq, to dash or sprinkle), when blood is placed on the altar. Here, the action extends around the altar, making blood’s placement part of the altar’s full perimeter.
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