What Does Leviticus 24:5 Mean in the King James?

And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake.

Leviticus 24:5 · KJV

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

Each sacred loaf begins as measured flour: the text locates holiness in provision portioned and prepared with care.

THE MEANING

This verse speaks of provision as something physical and exact: flour is taken, measured, and baked into twelve cakes. Each cake receives the same defined share; sacred meaning takes shape through ordinary ingredients and work.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that what is sacred must be immaterial or separate from ordinary labor: here flour, measurement, and baking belong inside the sacred act.

THE ROOT

עֶשְׂרֹנִים

ʿesronim

GROWS FROM

עשר

ʿ-ś-r

Ten; a number expressed in tens.

“tenth deals” in this verse is ʿesronim. Each cake is assigned two named tenth-measures, rather than an unspecified amount of flour. The word shares its root with ⁨עֶשֶׂר⁩ (ʿeser, ten) and ⁨מַעֲשֵׂר⁩ (maʿaser, a tenth or tithe), so the provision is described through counted portions, repeated across all twelve cakes.

ALSO GROWS

ʿeser: Ten.

עֶשֶׂר

It names the number behind the measure used for each cake.

maʿaser: A tenth; a tithe.

מַעֲשֵׂר

Like the cake’s measure, it describes a portion by counting it in relation to a whole.

THE PATTERN

Across scripture, bread turns provision into a visible form of presence and shared life.

And thou shalt set upon the table shewbread before me alway.

Exodus 25:30 · KJVBread is placed continually before God, making provision tangible and enduring.

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.

Matthew 14:19 · KJVBread is blessed, broken, and distributed, turning prepared food into shared provision.

For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.

1 Corinthians 10:17 · KJVMany people become one body through partaking of the same bread.

THE THREAD

And thou shalt set upon the table shewbread before me alway.

Exodus 25:30 · KJV

Exodus names the destination of this measured baking: bread set continually before God. Together, the verses join exact preparation with a steady presence represented in tangible food.

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