What Does Leviticus 19:5 Mean in the King James?
And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD, ye shall offer it at your own will.
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 peace offering carries wholeness in its Hebrew name, and the verse places its offering in willing consent.
THE MEANING
Your approach to the LORD appears here as an offering of wholeness, brought willingly. The verse joins what is offered with the wholeness it names; the offering is not detached from its meaning.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a sacred gift only counts when pressure forces it; the verse places the offering in willing consent.
THE ROOT
שְׁלָמִים
shelamim
GROWS FROM
שלם
To be whole or complete; to make whole or complete.
The word rendered “peace offerings” grows from the root for wholeness, so the offering carries the condition it names. The same root gives words for peace and being whole, holding the offering together with wholeness rather than mere quiet.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness; peace.
שָׁלוֹם
It shares the root שלם with shelamim, revealing that the offering’s name and the wholeness sought belong to one word family.
shalem: Whole; complete.
שָׁלֵם
This form shares the same root consonants and shows the completeness carried within the name of the offering.
THE PATTERN
An offering that expresses wholeness comes from willing consent rather than compulsion.
And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the LORD’s offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all his service, and for the holy garments.I will freely sacrifice unto thee: I will praise thy name, O LORD; for it is good.Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.THE THREAD
Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.The Hebrew word for “peace offerings,” shelamim, shares its root with shalom, “wholeness; peace.” Psalm 34 speaks of that same wholeness as something sought and pursued, opening the offering here as both what is brought and what is desired.
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