What Does Leviticus 7:5 Mean in the King James?

And the priest shall burn them upon the altar for an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a trespass offering.

Leviticus 7:5 · 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

The Hebrew name for the trespass offering holds guilt and the offering that answers it in the same word.

THE MEANING

Here, guilt is brought into a concrete act: the priest burns the designated portions on the altar as an offering to the LORD. The trespass offering gives liability a visible form before God.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that guilt is only an inward feeling: here it takes the visible form of an offering before the LORD.

THE ROOT

אָשָׁם

ʾāšām

GROWS FROM

א־ש־ם

ʾ-š-m

To incur guilt or be liable.

“trespass offering” in this verse is ʾāšām. Hebrew uses asham for both liability and the offering that answers it. The same root holds the condition and its ritual response together: guilt is not merely named; it is carried into an offering before the LORD.

ALSO GROWS

ʾāšēm: Guilty; liable.

אָשֵׁם

This form names the condition the offering addresses.

ʾašmāh: Guilt; offense.

אַשְׁמָה

This branch makes clear that asham carries the sense of guilt as well as the offering named for it.

מִזְבֵּחַ

mizbēaḥ

GROWS FROM

ז־ב־ח

z-b-ḥ

To slaughter or offer a sacrifice.

The altar’s name grows from the verb for slaughtering or sacrificing. English can make “altar” sound like a neutral object; the Hebrew keeps the act of sacrifice audible in the structure that receives the offering.

ALSO GROWS

zevaḥ: Sacrifice; sacrificial offering.

זֶבַח

This is the act or offering associated with the altar’s name.

zōvēaḥ: One who sacrifices or slaughters.

זֹבֵחַ

This form names the person performing the act the altar is built to receive.

THE PATTERN

Guilt is addressed through a visible act that joins acknowledgment to repair before God.

And he shall make amends for the harm that he hath done in the holy thing, and shall add the fifth part thereto, and give it unto the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him.

Leviticus 5:16 · KJVThe trespass becomes repayment plus a fifth, followed by the ram offering, so the wrong is met with tangible amends.

But if the man have no kinsman to recompense the trespass unto, let the trespass be recompensed unto the LORD, even to the priest; beside the ram of the atonement, whereby an atonement shall be made for him.

Numbers 5:8 · KJVWhen restitution is owed but no kinsman can receive it, it is given to the LORD’s priest alongside the ram.

Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

Matthew 5:24 · KJVThe gift at the altar waits while the broken relationship is faced, binding approach to God with repair between people.

THE THREAD

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

Isaiah 53:10 · KJV

The phrase “an offering for sin” translates the same Hebrew word, asham, used here for the trespass offering. Isaiah uses that word for a life made an asham, extending the ritual term beyond the portions burned on this altar.

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