What Does Leviticus 2:6 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt part it in pieces, and pour oil thereon: it is a meat offering.
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 broken into pieces before the oil is poured, yet the verse still names it as one offering.
THE MEANING
The verse holds division, oil, and offering together: the food is broken into pieces, oil is poured over it, and it remains one offering. Its wholeness does not depend on staying unbroken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that breaking destroys a gift’s identity: the pieces are still named as one offering.
THE ROOT
וּפָתוֹת
u-fātōt
GROWS FROM
פתת
p-t-t
To break or crumble into pieces.
“part it in pieces” in this verse is u-fātōt. The command and its result carry the same root: breaking and the fragments it leaves are bound together. English separates the action, “part,” from its result, “pieces”; Hebrew echoes one root through both.
ALSO GROWS
pātōt: Break into pieces.
פָּתוֹת
This is the action commanded in the verse.
pittim: Fragments or pieces.
פִּתִּים
This names the result of the breaking with the same root.
שֶׁמֶן
shemen
GROWS FROM
שמן
sh-m-n
To be fat or rich.
Oil’s name belongs to a word family that also names fatness and richness. The oil poured over the fragments carries that language of richness into the verse’s picture.
ALSO GROWS
shāmen: Fat or rich.
שָׁמֵן
This adjective shares the root found in the word for oil.
mishmannim: Rich foods or fat portions.
מִשְׁמַנִּים
This word extends the same root’s sense of richness into food.
וְיָצַקְתָּ
ve-yatsaqta
GROWS FROM
יצק
y-ts-q
To pour or cast.
“pour” in this verse is ve-yatsaqta. This root can describe pouring a liquid and casting something into shape. Here it names oil moving over the pieces, joining the act of pouring to the wider language of casting.
ALSO GROWS
yatsaq: Pour.
יָצַק
This is the verb used for pouring oil in the verse.
mutsaq: Cast or solidified by casting.
מוּצָק
This related form carries the root’s sense from pouring toward a formed result.
THE PATTERN
A gift can be broken and shared while the passage still names it as one.
In a pan it shall be made with oil; and when it is baken, thou shalt bring it in: and the baken pieces of the meat offering shalt thou offer for a sweet savour unto the LORD.And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.THE THREAD
And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me.The Hebrew word rendered “meat offering” here is מִנְחָה (minchah, gift or tribute), the same word translated “present” for Jacob’s gift. That shared word opens the offering as a gift shaped by division and oil, while Genesis shows the gift moving toward another.
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