What Does Leviticus 1:16 Mean in the King James?
And he shall pluck away his crop with his feathers, and cast it beside the altar on the east part, by the place of the ashes:
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’s order includes a designated place for what is stripped from the offering.
THE MEANING
The crop and feathers are removed together and cast beside the altar, eastward, at the ash-place. Even what is taken from the bird has a stated destination in the ritual’s arrangement.
THE ROOT
דֶּשֶׁן
deshen
GROWS FROM
ד־ש־ן
d-sh-n
To be fat or grow luxuriant; the noun can mean fatness, abundance, or sacrificial ashes.
The word for the ash-place belongs to a root family that also speaks of fatness and abundance. English “ashes” hides that fuller range, though here it still names the remains’ specific place in the ritual.
ALSO GROWS
dashen: To grow fat or become luxuriant
דָּשֵׁן
This verb carries the root’s sense of fullness beneath its other use for sacrificial ashes.
deshen: Fatness, abundance; sacrificial ashes
דֶּשֶׁן
The same Hebrew noun spans meanings that English separates, while this verse uses it for the designated ash-place.
וְהֵסִיר
wehesir
GROWS FROM
ס־ו־ר
s-w-r
To turn aside or depart; in this verb form, to remove or take away.
“pluck away” in this verse is wehesir. The removal verb grows from the language of turning aside or departing. The crop and feathers are purposefully taken away before the verse names where they go.
ALSO GROWS
sur: Turn aside; depart
סוּר
This basic form shows the movement away contained in the verb translated “pluck away.”
hesir: Remove; turn away
הֵסִיר
This form names the deliberate removal that prepares the parts for their stated destination.
וְהִשְׁלִיךְ
vehishlikh
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ך
sh-l-kh
To throw or cast.
“cast” in this verse is vehishlikh. The verse moves from removal to a concrete act of casting: the parts are not merely detached but placed beside the altar. The verb gives the disposal a clear direction and location.
ALSO GROWS
shalakh: Throw; cast away
שָׁלַךְ
The root’s basic action gives “cast” its physical force in the verse.
mashlikh: One who casts or throws
מַשְׁלִיךְ
This related form keeps the action concrete: something is deliberately thrown to a particular place.
THE PATTERN
Ritual removal includes a specific destination for what is taken away.
And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh, and take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed with the burnt offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar.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
Even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire: where the ashes are poured out shall he be burnt.The ash-place word is דֶּשֶׁן (deshen, ashes), the same Hebrew noun used in this verse. Leviticus 4:12 makes the destination explicit: the ashes are poured out in a clean place, showing how removal is paired with a named place.
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