What Does Leviticus 6:23 Mean in the King James?

For every meat offering for the priest shall be wholly burnt: it shall not be eaten.

Leviticus 6:23 · 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

The Hebrew word for “wholly” makes the boundary absolute: none of this priest’s offering becomes his food.

THE MEANING

The verse places the priest’s own grain offering wholly on the side of what is given over, leaving no part to be eaten. It draws a sharp boundary between an offering and personal food: this offering cannot be both.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the assumption that what belongs to the priest by virtue of his role is automatically available for his own consumption; this offering is excluded from his food.

THE ROOT

כָּלִיל

kalil

GROWS FROM

כלל

kalal

Complete, make whole, bring to completion.

The Hebrew word rendered “wholly” carries the sense of entire or complete. Its totality marks the boundary: none of this offering becomes the priest’s food.

ALSO GROWS

kalal: To complete, make whole, bring to perfection.

כָּלַל

The same seed describes completion as an action, adding depth to the offering’s being given in its entirety.

miklal: Completeness, perfection.

מִכְלָל

This cognate appears in the phrase “the perfection of beauty” in Psalm 50:2, linking the root’s sense of wholeness with a quality of completeness.

תֵּאָכֵל

te'akel

GROWS FROM

אכל

akal

Eat, consume.

The Hebrew word for “eaten” belongs to a root that also describes consumption more broadly. Elsewhere that root describes fire as consuming, so the verse’s prohibition on the priest eating sits beside the offering’s complete giving on the altar.

ALSO GROWS

ma'akal: Food, something eaten.

מַאֲכָל

This noun names what the priest is barred from taking from this offering: food for personal consumption.

okhlah: Consuming, devouring; used of fire that consumes.

אָכְלָה

The same root can describe fire’s consumption, opening a distinction between the priest eating the offering and the offering being given over to the altar.

THE PATTERN

Scripture marks sacred offerings by their destination, naming what is wholly burned, allotted as a priestly portion, or withheld from eating.

And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar: it is a burnt offering unto the LORD: it is a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

Exodus 29:18 · KJVThe ram is expressly burned whole, matching the total destination marked by “wholly” here.

And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’: it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.

Leviticus 2:3 · KJVHere the remnant is allotted to Aaron and his sons, showing that scripture names what remains as a priestly portion.

We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.

Hebrews 13:10 · KJVHere the right to eat at an altar is explicitly bounded, echoing this verse’s prohibition on turning the offering into food.

THE THREAD

For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.

Deuteronomy 4:24 · KJV

The Hebrew root ⁨אכל⁩ (akal), meaning “eat, consume,” gives this verse’s “be eaten” and Deuteronomy’s word for “consuming” fire a shared seed. The link places the priest’s forbidden food beside another scriptural image of consumption by fire, revealing the distinction between what he eats and what is wholly offered.

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