What Does Leviticus 21:15 Mean in the King James?
Neither shall he profane his seed among his people: for I the LORD do sanctify him.
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 verse’s hidden hinge is that a man can make his lineage common even while the LORD sets him apart.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a boundary between a set-apart life and its continuing line among the people: the seed can be profaned, made common. It locates the priest’s set-apartness in the LORD, who is the one setting him apart.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being set apart makes the lineage one carries forward immune to profanation.
THE ROOT
יְחַלֵּל
yeḥallēl
GROWS FROM
חלל
ḥ-l-l
To profane or desecrate; to make common.
“profane” in this verse is yeḥallēl. Here, profaning is more than insulting what is set apart: it is making the seed common among the people. That sharpens the contrast with the LORD’s act of setting the priest apart.
ALSO GROWS
ḥol: Common, ordinary; not set apart.
חֹל
This noun exposes the concrete opposite carried by the verb: to profane is to treat as ordinary what is set apart.
ḥillul: Profanation, desecration.
חִלּוּל
This noun names the boundary violation itself, clarifying that profaning is an action done to what is set apart.
מְקַדְּשׁוֹ
məqaddĕšô
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
To be set apart or to set apart.
“sanctify” in this verse is məqaddĕšô. The LORD is explicitly the agent who sets the priest apart, so this status is received, not self-named. The same root names the set-apart person and the sanctuary, giving this separation a concrete sense of belonging and boundary.
ALSO GROWS
qādôsh: Set apart.
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective names the quality the LORD gives the priest in the verse.
miqdāsh: Sanctuary; set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The sanctuary belongs to the same word-family, showing that set-apartness marks both a person and a place.
זַרְעוֹ
zarʿô
GROWS FROM
זרע
z-r-ʿ
To sow; seed or offspring.
Hebrew keeps the image of sowing even when the word means descendants: seed is what continues life beyond the one who carries it. What is made common here reaches forward as lineage among the people, not just as a private status.
ALSO GROWS
zāraʿ: To sow.
זָרַע
The verb preserves the image of planting and carrying life forward.
zeraʿ: Seed, offspring, descendants.
זֶרַע
The noun carries that planting image into lineage, making the verse’s concern about what continues among the people visible.
THE PATTERN
The LORD sets people apart, giving them a distinct identity that is carried among others.
And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.THE THREAD
Neither shall ye profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel: I am the LORD which hallow you,This verse repeats both roots at the communal scale: people profane (חלל) what is set apart, while the LORD sets people apart (קדש). It makes the tension in Leviticus 21:15 visible: the priest can profane his seed, while his own set-apartness rests in the LORD’s action.
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