What Does Numbers 15:10 Mean in the King James?
And thou shalt bring for a drink offering half an hin of wine, for an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.
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 turns the gift into movement: wine is poured out and brought near.
THE MEANING
A measured portion of wine is poured out as a drink offering alongside the offering made by fire. The LORD receives this tangible act as a pleasing aroma; pouring and nearness belong together here.
THE ROOT
נֶסֶךְ
nesekh
GROWS FROM
נ־ס־ך
n-s-k
נָסַךְ (nasakh) means to pour out; the root also describes pouring molten material to cast something.
The English “drink offering” lets you see the wine; the Hebrew root also names the act of pouring it out. The gift is understood through its movement from the vessel into the offering.
ALSO GROWS
nasakh: To pour out or pour a libation
נָסַךְ
This verb makes the action inside the drink offering explicit: the wine is poured.
massekhah: A cast metal image
מַסֵּכָה
This related use also carries the concrete sense of material being poured or cast.
תַּקְרִיב
taqriv
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־ב
q-r-b
קָרַב (qarab) means to approach or draw near.
The verb translated “bring” comes from the root for coming near. Its sibling word qorbān names an offering as something brought near, so the measured wine participates in an act of approach.
ALSO GROWS
qarov: Near or close
קָרוֹב
This familiar branch shows the root’s basic sense of nearness inside the verb “bring.”
qorbān: Offering; something brought near
קָרְבָּן
This branch connects the act of bringing the wine with the offering as an approach.
נִיחֹחַ
nichoach
GROWS FROM
נ־ו־ח
n-w-ḥ
נוּחַ (nuach) means to rest or settle.
“pleasing, in “sweet savour”” in this verse is nichoach. The word translated “pleasing” carries a root shade of rest or settling. The aroma is described as pleasing, with this quieter resonance beneath the sensory image.
ALSO GROWS
menuchah: Rest or a resting place
מְנוּחָה
This branch makes the root’s sense of rest visible beneath “pleasing.”
manoach: A place of rest or repose
מָנוֹחַ
This related word echoes the settling quality carried by nichoach.
THE PATTERN
A measured gift is poured out alongside an offering, and its reception is described through pleasing fragrance.
And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.And the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and shalt do thereto according to the meat offering of the morning, and according to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD.Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.THE THREAD
And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.The same Hebrew phrase רֵיחַ נִיחֹחַ (re’ach nichoach, a pleasing aroma) appears when the LORD receives Noah’s offering. נִיחֹחַ (nichoach, pleasing or soothing) carries the root shade of נוּחַ (nuach, rest or settling), opening that resonance inside Numbers’ “sweet savour.”
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