What Does Leviticus 17:4 Mean in the King James?
And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering unto the LORD before the tabernacle of the LORD; blood shall be imputed unto that man; he hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people:
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” is a drawing near: when the life is taken without being brought near to the LORD, its blood is counted to the one who shed it.
THE MEANING
The taking of the animal is not treated as private slaughter: its blood is counted to the person who sheds it. Without bringing it near to the LORD’s dwelling, the text names him a shedder and cuts him off from his people.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Leaving out the act of bringing it near does not make the killing neutral; the verse names it as bloodshed and holds the blood to the one who shed it.
THE ROOT
קָרְבָּן
qorban
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
Approach; draw near.
The word rendered “offering” is qorban, “drawing near,” from the root for approaching. The verse binds the animal’s death to an act of drawing near; without that approach, the blood is reckoned to the one who poured it out.
ALSO GROWS
qarab: Approach; draw near.
קָרַב
This verb makes explicit the movement held in qorban: the offering is a drawing near.
qarov: Near; close.
קָרוֹב
This related form echoes the nearness at the center of the offering’s name.
יֵחָשֵׁב
yeḥāshēv
GROWS FROM
חשב
ḥ-sh-b
Think, reckon, account, or plan.
“Imputed” can sound like an abstract penalty assigned from outside. This Hebrew word belongs to a family of thinking and accounting, and the next phrase names what is counted: “he hath shed blood.”
ALSO GROWS
ḥāshav: Think, reckon, or plan.
חָשַׁב
The verb shows that the blood is accounted to this man, rather than left as an unnamed consequence.
maḥashavah: Thought or plan.
מַחֲשָׁבָה
This noun shares the root’s sense of something held in thought, echoing the verse’s language of reckoning.
וְנִכְרַת
venikhrat
GROWS FROM
כרת
k-r-t
Cut; sever.
“Cut off” carries the concrete image of severance: the man is removed from the circle of his people. The same verb appears in the expression “cut a covenant,” so here its force is the rupture of belonging.
ALSO GROWS
karat: Cut or sever.
כָּרַת
This is the root verb behind the verse’s image of being cut off.
karet: Excision; being cut off.
כָּרֵת
This form names the condition of severance that the verse applies to the man.
karat berit: Cut a covenant; make a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The same root can describe a binding relation; here it marks the man’s severance from his people.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats shed blood as an accountable reality that cannot be erased by distance or status.
Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.THE THREAD
Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.Both verses use שָׁפַךְ (shafakh, pour out) for the act rendered “shed.” Genesis ties poured blood to an answering flow of blood; Leviticus names the shedder and the severance that follows.
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