What Does Leviticus 22:22 Mean in the King James?
Blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a wen, or scurvy, or scabbed, ye shall not offer these unto the LORD, nor make an offering by fire of them upon the altar unto the LORD.
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 word translated “offer” means “draw near,” so the verse sets a boundary around which bodies may approach the altar.
THE MEANING
The verse draws a blunt boundary at the altar: a blind, broken, or maimed animal, or one with a wen, scurvy, or scabbed skin, cannot be offered by fire to the LORD. Its visible condition determines whether it may be brought near. The text states this exclusion without softening it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that presenting something as an offering is enough: this verse makes its condition part of whether it can be received.
THE ROOT
תַּקְרִיבוּ
taqrivu
GROWS FROM
קרב
Draw near; approach.
The word translated “offer” comes from the root meaning “draw near.” The verse is therefore also about approach: it names which bodies may be brought near the altar as a fire offering.
ALSO GROWS
qārab: Draw near; approach.
קָרַב
This is the underlying verb behind “offer,” making approach part of the word itself.
qorbān: Offering; a thing brought near.
קָרְבָּן
The word for a sacrificial offering shares this root, framing the gift as a drawing near.
שָׁבוּר
shavur
GROWS FROM
שבר
Break; shatter; fracture.
“Broken” belongs to a root that names breaking and fracture. Here it describes a concrete bodily condition, one of the stated limits on what may be brought near.
ALSO GROWS
shavar: Break; shatter.
שָׁבַר
The verb names the breaking behind the condition described in the verse.
shever: Breaking; fracture; ruin.
שֶׁבֶר
This noun carries the same root into the language of damage and fracture.
THE PATTERN
Across scripture, the condition of what is presented as an offering marks its fitness for the altar.
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:And if there be any blemish therein, as if it be lame, or blind, or have any ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the LORD thy God.But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:THE THREAD
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.Leviticus’s “broken” and the psalm’s “broken” share שבר (shavar, “to break or fracture”). Leviticus names a broken animal barred from the altar, while the psalm calls a broken spirit a sacrifice God does not despise.
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