What Does Numbers 15:6 Mean in the King James?

Or for a ram, thou shalt prepare for a meat offering two tenth deals of flour mingled with the third part of an hin of oil.

Numbers 15:6 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The word for flour “mingled” with oil shares its root with the word for confusing speech: mixture can take shape as a prepared offering or unsettle understanding.

THE MEANING

This verse gives the offering a precise form: a ram is accompanied by two tenth deals of flour mingled with a third of a hin of oil. The mixture belongs to the preparation itself, and its proportions remain exact.

THE ROOT

בְּלוּלָה

belulah from balal

GROWS FROM

בלל

To mix or mingle; in another use, to confuse through mixing.

“mingled” in this verse is belulah from balal. The root holds together two outcomes of mixing: flour and oil joined into a prepared offering, and speech mixed until people no longer understand one another. The verse’s measured preparation gives the joining a defined form.

ALSO GROWS

balul: Mingled or mixed, as flour with oil.

בָּלוּל

This is the form used for the joined ingredients in the offering.

balal: To mix or confuse, as language is confused at Babel.

בָּלַל

The same root shows that mixing can also unsettle communication, opening a striking contrast with the ordered mixture here.

THE PATTERN

An offering takes visible form through what is brought forward and prepared.

And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:

Genesis 4:4 · KJVAbel’s offering takes concrete form in the firstlings and their fat, brought forward as a gift.

And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.

Leviticus 2:4 · KJVFlour and oil become an offering through their particular preparation and joining.

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.

Romans 12:1 · KJVThe offering is given visible form through the bodies presented as a living sacrifice.

THE THREAD

Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

Genesis 11:7 · KJV

Numbers uses the root ⁨בלל⁩ (balal, to mix) for the flour mingled with oil; Genesis uses the same root for confusing speech. The shared root holds two edges of mixing together: ingredients can be joined into a prepared gift, while speech can be mixed until understanding breaks down.

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