What Does Leviticus 6:13 Mean in the King James?
The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.
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 altar’s fire is not a one-time spark: the verse joins continual burning with a refusal of extinction.
THE MEANING
The fire remains burning upon the altar; its continuity is part of what the verse says. The line holds both an ongoing flame and the certainty that it does not go out.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a sacred beginning is enough on its own: the verse describes a flame that continues, not a moment that has passed.
THE ROOT
תִּכְבֶּה
tikhbeh
GROWS FROM
כ־ב־ה
k-b-h
Go out, be extinguished; in another form, extinguish or quench.
“go out” in this verse is tikhbeh. The same root can describe a flame going out and the act of putting it out. Isaiah uses that root for the smoking flax that is not quenched, extending this verse’s refusal of extinction to a fragile, nearly spent flame.
ALSO GROWS
yekhabbenah: He will quench it
יְכַבֶּנָּה
Isaiah 42:3 uses this form for the smoking flax; it shares the root behind “go out” here.
tikhbeh: It goes out; it is extinguished
תִּכְבֶּה
This is the form in the verse, naming the extinction the altar’s fire does not undergo.
תּוּקַד
tuqad
GROWS FROM
י־ק־ד
y-q-d
Burn, kindle.
The root names the action that keeps the altar’s fire present, not merely the existence of fire. Its related words also name a burning place and burning itself, joining the flame to the place and ongoing process that sustain it.
ALSO GROWS
moqedah: Hearth; place of burning
מוֹקְדָה
This related noun appears in Leviticus 6:9, where the offering burns on the altar through the night.
yeqod: Burning; fire
יְקוֹד
This noun in Isaiah 33:14 names burning as a sustained condition, echoing the verse’s continual flame.
THE PATTERN
Scripture portrays a flame devoted to God as something supplied, preserved, and kept from extinction.
And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;THE THREAD
A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.The Hebrew root כבה (kavah, to go out or extinguish) appears in both passages: here, the altar fire does not go out; in Isaiah, the smoking flax is not quenched. The image moves from a flame maintained on the altar to a fragile flame that is not put out.
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