What Does Leviticus 6:28 Mean in the King James?
But the earthen vessel wherein it is sodden shall be broken: and if it be sodden in a brasen pot, it shall be both scoured, and rinsed in water.
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 verse makes the vessel’s material part of the cleansing: washing works only where the vessel can remain whole.
THE MEANING
This verse holds two treatments together: the earthen vessel in which the offering is cooked is broken, while the bronze vessel is scoured and rinsed in waters. The difference is in what can be cleaned while remaining intact.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that every vessel can be restored by the same wash: the earthen one is broken, while the bronze one is cleaned and remains whole.
THE ROOT
יִשָּׁבֵר
yishaver
GROWS FROM
שׁ־ב־ר
sh-b-r
To break, shatter, or fracture.
Here the vessel itself is ended; the action is not a rinse that removes residue from its surface. The root also names fracture and ruin, giving “broken” the force of an irreversible break in form.
ALSO GROWS
shever: Breakage, fracture, or ruin.
שֶׁבֶר
This branch carries the vessel’s breaking into the language of damage that cannot simply be washed away.
mishbar: Breakers or breaking waves.
מִשְׁבָּר
The root also describes force that breaks a form, sharpening the contrast with the bronze vessel that can be scoured and rinsed.
THE PATTERN
Scripture distinguishes between what washing makes clean for continued use and what is shattered beyond repair.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.THE THREAD
And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.Both verses use שׁ־ב־ר (sh-b-r, to break or shatter). Leviticus gives the broken pot as one outcome of cleansing; Jeremiah makes the same break explicit as a vessel that cannot be made whole again.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us