What Does Leviticus 14:51 Mean in the King James?

And he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times:

Leviticus 14:51 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The “running water” is literally “living waters” in Hebrew, sharing its life-word with the living bird dipped in a slain bird’s blood.

THE MEANING

The rite cleanses the house by bringing together blood from a slain bird, a living bird, and running water before sevenfold sprinkling. The Hebrew names both bird and water with the language of life, placing life inside the very act that includes death. The verse holds both together without erasing either.

THE ROOT

חַיָּה

ḥayyāh

GROWS FROM

חיה

ḥ-y-h

To live, be alive.

The Hebrew behind “running water” is ⁨מַיִם חַיִּים⁩ (mayim ḥayyim, “living waters”), built from the same ⁨חיה⁩ (ḥ-y-h) root as ⁨חַיָּה⁩ (ḥayyāh, “living”), the bird. English separates a living creature from a water source, while Hebrew gives both the same life-language; the rite places that shared language beside the slain bird’s blood.

ALSO GROWS

ḥay: Alive, living.

חַי

This is the life-word describing the bird, which remains alive as it enters the rite.

ḥayyim: Life; living.

חַיִּים

In ⁨מַיִם חַיִּים⁩ (mayim ḥayyim, “living waters”), the same root names the water used in the rite.

ḥāyâ: To live, be alive.

חָיָה

This verb gives the shared root’s core sense: the bird and the water are both described through the language of being alive.

THE PATTERN

Life passes through a cleansing rite and flows outward as a source of renewal.

But he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open fields, and make an atonement for the house: and it shall be clean.

Leviticus 14:53 · KJVThe living bird from the cleansing rite is released outward, carrying the passage from the house toward open space.

For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.

Psalm 36:9 · KJVLife appears as a fountain, a source from which it flows.

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

John 7:38 · KJVThe image of living water becomes a flow that moves outward from within.

THE THREAD

For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.

Psalm 36:9 · KJV

Leviticus calls the water ⁨מַיִם חַיִּים⁩ (mayim ḥayyim, “living waters”); Psalm 36:9 uses ⁨חַיִּים⁩ (ḥayyim, “life”) for the fountain with God. The shared root ⁨חיה⁩ (ḥ-y-h, “live”) opens the washing water into an image of life as a source.

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