What Does Numbers 7:51 Mean in the King James?
One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the first year, for a burnt offering:
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
Hebrew names this burnt offering עֹלָה (olah, ascent), so the verse carries a rising motion inside the gift itself.
THE MEANING
The line names one young bull, one ram, and one year-old lamb with exactness. The Hebrew word for the offering carries ascent, holding the gift’s concrete form and its upward motion together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The offering is only loss; its Hebrew name also holds ascent within it.
THE ROOT
עֹלָה
olah
GROWS FROM
עלה
to ascend, go up, rise
“burnt offering” in this verse is olah. The Hebrew name עֹלָה (olah, ascent offering) grows from עלה (ʿalah, to ascend), carrying upward motion inside the offering’s name. In Genesis 8:20, the verb for “offered” and the noun for “burnt offerings” share this root, making the act itself echo as ascent.
ALSO GROWS
ʿalah: to go up, rise
עָלָה
This verb supplies the movement contained in the offering’s name.
maʿalah: an ascent, step, or upward course
מַעֲלָה
The same root names an upward path, deepening the image of the offering as ascent.
THE PATTERN
What is given in offering is pictured as rising into a pleasing presence before God.
But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.THE THREAD
And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.In Hebrew, the verb translated “offered” and the noun translated “burnt offerings” both grow from עלה (ʿalah, ascend). The English separates the act from the offering; the shared root lets them echo one another as ascent.
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