What Does Leviticus 1:6 Mean in the King James?

And he shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into his pieces.

Leviticus 1:6 · KJV

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 offering called “that which ascends” is first stripped and divided, so its ascent is inseparable from what happens to its body.

THE MEANING

Here, the burnt offering is handled in plain physical terms: its hide comes off, and its body is cut into pieces. The Hebrew name ⁨עֹלָה⁩ (ʿolah, burnt offering) carries the sense of ascent, while the verse shows that ascent beginning with this disassembly.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the assumption that the offering remains a single, untouched whole: the verse explicitly names the removal of its hide and the division of its body.

THE ROOT

וְנִתַּח

wenittach

GROWS FROM

נתח

Cut or divide into pieces.

“cut it into pieces” in this verse is wenittach. The verb ⁨וְנִתַּח⁩ (wenittach, cut into pieces) and the noun ⁨נְתָחִים⁩ (netāḥim, pieces) share the same root. Hebrew keeps the action and its result in one family: the offering becomes pieces through cutting.

ALSO GROWS

netāḥim: Pieces or parts.

נְתָחִים

The noun names the parts produced by the cutting in this verse.

nittuach: Dissection or surgery in modern Hebrew.

נִתּוּחַ

This later formation from the same root still names dividing or cutting into parts.

וְהִפְשִׁיט

wehiphshit

GROWS FROM

פשט

Strip off; in other uses, spread out or raid.

“flay” in this verse is wehiphshit. The verb for flaying belongs to the root ⁨פשט⁩ (p-sh-ṭ), also used for stripping clothing and, in other settings, spreading out or raiding. Here its stripping sense makes the removal of the animal’s hide explicit before the cutting begins.

ALSO GROWS

pāshaṭ: To strip off or remove clothing.

פָּשַׁט

This biblical use shares the root’s concrete sense of taking a covering away.

pāshūṭ: Simple or plain in later Hebrew.

פָּשׁוּט

This adjective shares the root consonants and carries a sense of what is plain or exposed.

עֹלָה

ʿolah

GROWS FROM

עלה

Go up, rise, ascend.

The Hebrew name ⁨עֹלָה⁩ (ʿolah, burnt offering) comes from the verb ⁨עָלָה⁩ (ʿālāh, go up). The word holds the offering together with its upward movement, even as this verse names the bodily steps that precede it.

ALSO GROWS

ʿālāh: To go up or ascend.

עָלָה

This is the verb from which the offering’s name is formed.

maʿaleh: An ascent or upward slope.

מַעֲלֶה

This noun retains the root’s movement upward.

THE PATTERN

The language of offering keeps the body at its center, whether the sacrifice is burned or presented alive.

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 1:9 · KJVThe offering remains concrete down to its inner parts and legs before it is burned on the altar.

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.

Romans 12:1 · KJVThe language of sacrifice again centers on the body, here presented alive.

Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:

Hebrews 10:5 · KJVThe verse names a body as the prepared form of offering.

THE THREAD

And he shall cut it into his pieces, with his head and his fat: and the priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar:

Leviticus 1:12 · KJV

The Hebrew repeats ⁨נתח⁩ (n-t-ḥ), the root for cutting into pieces. This verse shows those pieces being laid in order on the firewood, carrying the physical process named in Leviticus 1:6 forward.

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