What Does Leviticus 4:34 Mean in the King James?
And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar:
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 Hebrew verb for pouring out the offering’s blood is also used for pouring out the heart, joining ritual release and inward release in one image.
THE MEANING
The offering for the missing is brought into contact with the altar: its blood is set on the horns, and the rest is poured at the base. The act runs from the altar’s raised points down to its foundation. Its verb for pouring belongs to the same Hebrew root used for pouring out the heart, so bodily action and inward release share one image.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁפֹּךְ
yishpōkh
GROWS FROM
שׁפך
Pour out, spill, shed.
“pour out” in this verse is yishpōkh. The same root describes pouring out blood and pouring out the heart. Here the remaining blood is fully released at the altar’s base, echoing the language of outpouring elsewhere.
ALSO GROWS
shāphakh dam: Shed blood.
שָׁפַךְ דָּם
The same verb names blood’s release as shedding, sharpening the physical force of the altar action.
shifkhu lefanav levavkhem: Pour out your heart before him.
שִׁפְכוּ לְפָנָיו לְבַבְכֶם
Psalm 62:8 uses this root for inward outpouring, linking the ritual’s physical release with the heart’s release.
חַטָּאת
ḥaṭṭā’t
GROWS FROM
חטא
Miss; miss the mark.
“sin offering” in this verse is ḥaṭṭā’t. The offering’s name grows from the root for missing, so it can be heard as an offering for the missing. The verse then shows the missing being handled through blood, placement, and outpouring.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss or incur fault.
חָטָא
This verb shares the root of the offering’s name and keeps the idea of missing within it.
ḥēṭʾ: A missing or fault.
חֵטְא
This noun shows the same root naming what the offering addresses.
וְנָתַן
wenatan
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, place.
The priest’s “put” is a form of natan, whose range also includes giving and setting. Linguistically, the blood is placed on the altar as something given to it; Leviticus 17:11 uses this same root when it says the blood is given upon the altar.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: A gift.
מַתָּנָה
A gift is something given, from the same seed as the priest’s act of placing.
nethinim: Those given or assigned for service.
נְתִינִים
This branch preserves the root’s sense of being placed or assigned to a role.
THE PATTERN
Scripture portrays release as a full outpouring, from blood brought to the altar to the heart poured before God.
Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.And thou shalt take of the blood of the bullock, and put it upon the horns of the altar with thy finger, and pour all the blood beside the bottom of the altar.And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.THE THREAD
For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.The “put” here and “given” in Leviticus 17:11 translate forms of natan, the root of give, set, and place. That verse names the blood as the flesh’s nefesh, the living soul, so the shared verb presents its placement on the altar as the giving of life-bearing blood.
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