What Does Numbers 15:4 Mean in the King James?
Then shall he that offereth his offering unto the LORD bring a meat offering of a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of oil.
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 word translated “offering” carries the sense of drawing near, so the flour and oil give approach a measured, tangible form.
THE MEANING
The verse shows approach to the LORD taking a tangible shape: a counted portion of fine flour joined with oil. The offering is measured and mixed, so nearness appears as embodied participation rather than an undefined feeling.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that what is sacred must be detached from matter: grain, oil, quantity, and preparation all belong to this act of nearness.
THE ROOT
קָרְבָּנוֹ
qorbānô
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־ב
q-r-b
to draw near, approach
The person who offers and the qorban are both formed from q-r-b: the offerer draws near, and the offering names what comes near with him. The measured flour and oil give that nearness a material shape.
ALSO GROWS
qārab: to approach, draw near
קָרַב
This is the movement carried by the offering: the act is named through nearness.
qārōb: near, close
קָרוֹב
The same root names both the movement toward closeness and the state of being near.
בְּלוּלָה
belulah
GROWS FROM
ב־ל־ל
b-l-l
to mix, mingle; also to confound
“mingled” in this verse is belulah. The flour is not simply accompanied by oil; the verse describes the two as mixed together. The root also appears in the wordplay on Babel, where mixing becomes confusion, while here mixture gives the offering a composed, prepared form.
ALSO GROWS
bālal: to mix, mingle
בָּלַל
This verb shows that the oil is worked into the flour, making the offering a joined substance.
Babel: Babel; Genesis 11:9 links its name by wordplay with balal, “to confound”
בָּבֶל
The shared root carries mixing from confusion in one passage to purposeful joining in this prepared offering.
THE PATTERN
Approach becomes visible in what is brought near: material gifts and embodied lives alike.
And with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering.And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God:I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.THE THREAD
But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.Numbers calls the gift a qorban, from q-r-b, “to draw near”; Psalm 73:28 uses that same root for “draw near.” It makes explicit what the measured flour and oil embody here: nearness to God is itself named as good.
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