What Does Numbers 18:1 Mean in the King James?
And the LORD said unto Aaron, Thou and thy sons and thy father’s house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary: and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood.
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 priests must carry what goes crooked within their charge; sacred responsibility does not let them stand apart from it.
THE MEANING
Now, the verse makes entrusted care inseparable from accountability: those nearest a sacred trust carry the crookedness bound up with that charge. Being set apart does not make the responsibility weightless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A sacred title does not place its bearer outside the failures attached to the role.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׂאוּ
tis'u
GROWS FROM
נשא
נשא (nasaʾ): lift, carry, bear.
The verse repeats this carrying: first the household bears the sanctuary’s crookedness, then Aaron and his sons bear the crookedness of their priesthood. The root ties the office to a weight that must be carried, not merely a title that can be worn.
ALSO GROWS
massaʾ: burden, load
מַשָּׂא
This noun from נשא makes the verse’s “bearing” concrete: the charge is a weight placed on those entrusted with the sanctuary.
nasiʾ: chief, leader; one lifted up
נָשִׂיא
This related form links elevation with responsibility: being raised to a role also means carrying what comes with it.
הַמִּקְדָּשׁ
hammiqdash
GROWS FROM
קדש
קדש (qadash): set apart.
The sanctuary is the place set apart, and the verse assigns its care to people who must bear the crookedness bound up with that trust. Being set apart marks the charge; it does not remove its weight.
ALSO GROWS
qodesh: set-apartness; a holy place or thing
קֹדֶשׁ
This noun shares the root קדש and shows that the sanctuary’s identity is defined by being set apart.
qadosh: set apart
קָדוֹשׁ
This form shares the same consonants and carries the sanctuary’s defining quality into the people and things devoted to its service.
THE PATTERN
Entrusted service carries responsibility for the failures within its charge.
Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin offering in the holy place, seeing it is most holy, and God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the LORD?When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.THE THREAD
Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin offering in the holy place, seeing it is most holy, and God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the LORD?Both verses use נשא (nasaʾ, lift or carry) for bearing iniquity. Numbers names the charge in the sanctuary and priesthood; Leviticus shows that the same carrying reaches the congregation.
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