What Does Numbers 18:13 Mean in the King James?
And whatsoever is first ripe in the land, which they shall bring unto the LORD, shall be thine; every one that is clean in thine house shall eat of it.
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 land’s first yield becomes a shared table: what is brought to the LORD feeds every clean person in the priest’s house.
THE MEANING
The first yield of the land is set apart for the LORD and becomes the priest’s share. Every clean person in the household may eat from it. Dedication and nourishment meet in the same produce.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that what is set apart for God cannot also nourish people: the first yield feeds every clean person in the priest’s house.
THE ROOT
בִּכּוּרֵי
bikkurei
GROWS FROM
בכר
To be firstborn or bring forth first; the first issue or yield.
The word for the land’s first ripe produce belongs to the same family as “firstborn,” joining the first harvest to the idea of first status. English can make “first ripe” sound like timing alone; the Hebrew root also carries the weight of what comes first.
ALSO GROWS
bekhor: Firstborn
בְּכוֹר
It shares the root’s language of what comes first, linking the land’s first yield with the firstborn.
bikkurim: Firstfruits
בִּכּוּרִים
This is the familiar plural form for the first produce, showing that the verse concerns the opening yield of the land.
bekhorah: Birthright or firstborn status
בְּכֹרָה
It shows how the root can mark the distinct status attached to being first.
טָהוֹר
tahor
GROWS FROM
טהר
To be clean or pure; in some forms, to cleanse or purify.
“clean” in this verse is tahor. The household’s access to the produce is described through cleanness: every person who is tahor may eat. The root connects that condition with cleanness and purification, revealing that the verse names who can share in the provision.
ALSO GROWS
tahorah: Cleanness or purity
טָהֳרָה
It carries the same root into the noun for the state of being clean.
tiher: Cleansed or purified
טִהֵר
This form shows the root in an action of purification, deepening the sense of cleanness named in the verse.
THE PATTERN
The first portion is set apart as the beginning that represents the larger whole.
Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.THE THREAD
The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.Both verses use the בִּכּוּרִים (bikkurim, firstfruits) word family for the land’s earliest yield. Exodus names its bringing into the LORD’s house; Numbers shows that the dedicated produce becomes food for the clean in the household.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us