What Does Leviticus 19:8 Mean in the King James?
Therefore every one that eateth it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the LORD: and that soul 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
Eating what is set apart does not make it ordinary; it makes the eater carry the breach.
THE MEANING
When what is set apart for the LORD is treated as common and eaten outside its appointed time, the eater bears the crookedness of that act. The verse names the consequence plainly: the living person is cut off from among the people.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that taking the sacred into oneself makes its boundary disappear; the verse says the act still carries a consequence.
THE ROOT
חִלֵּל
ḥillēl
GROWS FROM
חלל
To profane or make common.
“profaned” in this verse is ḥillēl. The act makes what is set apart common in use. The word points to a collapse of distinction, not merely a private feeling of disrespect.
ALSO GROWS
ḥol: Common, ordinary.
חֹל
This branch shows the direction of profaning: what belongs in a distinct category is handled as ordinary.
ḥillēl: Profaned, treated as common.
חִלֵּל
This is the verse’s word for the eater’s act toward what is set apart for the LORD.
קֹדֶשׁ
qōdesh
GROWS FROM
קדש
To set apart, mark as distinct.
“hallowed” in this verse is qōdesh. The food is distinct because it belongs to the LORD. The verse’s tension is between that belonging and the act of treating it as common.
ALSO GROWS
qādōsh: Set apart.
קָדוֹשׁ
This branch makes clear that the food’s status is a matter of belonging and distinction.
miqdāsh: Sanctuary, a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
Like the sanctuary, the food is not interchangeable with what is ordinary.
וְנִכְרְתָה
wenikhretāh
GROWS FROM
כרת
To cut, sever.
“cut off” in this verse is wenikhretāh. The verse answers the breach of a boundary with severance from the people. The same cut that marks an ending makes the consequence concrete: belonging is broken.
ALSO GROWS
kerītūt: Divorce, a severing of a bond.
כְּרִיתוּת
This branch carries the sense of a relationship being formally cut apart.
kārat berīt: To cut a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The idiom shows that cutting can mark a binding relationship; here the verse speaks of the opposite outcome, being cut off from the people.
THE PATTERN
When what is set apart is treated as common, the breach carries consequences into the community.
Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.THE THREAD
But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.This verse repeats the pairing of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, living soul) with כרת (karat, cut or sever). The consequence falls on the whole living person in relation to the people, not on an abstract offense alone.
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