What Does Leviticus 14:23 Mean in the King James?
And he shall bring them on the eighth day for his cleansing unto the priest, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, before the LORD.
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 word for “door” means “opening,” placing cleansing at the entrance into the LORD’s presence.
THE MEANING
Your cleansing is pictured as an approach: the person being cleansed is brought to the priest at the tent’s opening, before the LORD. Purification, threshold, and presence form one movement.
THE ROOT
פֶּתַח
petaḥ
GROWS FROM
פתח
p-t-ḥ
to open
The Hebrew word for “door” is petaḥ (פֶּתַח), an opening, from pataḥ (פָּתַח), “to open”; the same root forms maphteaḥ (מַפְתֵּחַ), “key.” The verse places cleansing at an opening before the LORD, making the threshold part of how purification is pictured.
ALSO GROWS
pāṯaḥ: to open
פָּתַח
The verb shares its root with the doorway, revealing the entrance as an opening.
maphteaḥ: key
מַפְתֵּחַ
A key is that which opens; this shared root echoes the access implied by the tent’s opening.
לְטָהֳרָתוֹ
ləṭāhŏrāṯô
GROWS FROM
טהר
ṭ-h-r
to be clean or pure; to cleanse
The word for cleansing belongs to the same root family as the word for the clean state. Here, that family is set at a priestly encounter before the LORD, joining purification with approach.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāhēr: to be clean; to cleanse
טָהֵר
This verb shares the seed of “his cleansing,” holding the act of purification in the same word family.
ṭāhôr: clean, pure
טָהוֹר
This adjective names the clean state that belongs to the same root as the cleansing in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Purification and nearness meet as a person is brought to an opening and presented before God.
This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD: where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee.Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.THE THREAD
And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meat offering upon the altar: and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean.The phrase “he shall be clean” uses the same Hebrew root טהר (ṭ-h-r) as “his cleansing” here. The shared root holds purification and the clean state together, while this verse places the process at the altar before God.
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