What Does Leviticus 1:11 Mean?
And he shall slaughter it on the flank of the altar, northward, before the face of the LORD, and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall fling its blood round about upon the altar.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And he shall kill it on the side of the altar northward before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall sprinkle his blood round about upon the altar.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls the altar a slaughter-place, so death is carried inside the name of the sacred place itself.
THE MEANING
The verse places a sacred act before you without concealment: the animal is killed, and its blood is sprinkled around the altar. The altar’s Hebrew name carries the meaning of slaughter and sacrifice, keeping the offering’s death within the identity of the place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that this sacred scene is free of violence: the verse names the killing and makes blood visible around the altar.
THE ROOT
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbēaḥ
GROWS FROM
זבח
zabach
To slaughter or sacrifice.
The altar is not named for its appearance but for the slaughter and sacrifice that take place there. Since the blood is spread around it, the Hebrew name keeps the offering’s death within the sacred place itself.
ALSO GROWS
zāvaḥ: To slaughter or sacrifice.
זָבַח
This is the action performed in the verse: the animal is killed.
zevaḥ: A slaughtered offering or sacrifice.
זֶבַח
This branch names the offering as an act of slaughter, linking what happens to the altar with what the altar is called.
זָרַק
zāraq
GROWS FROM
זרק
zaraq
To throw, scatter, dash, or sprinkle.
“fling” in this verse is zāraq. The verb holds both the force of throwing and the particular act of sprinkling. Blood is not merely present in the scene; it is actively cast across the altar’s surface.
ALSO GROWS
mizraq: A basin or bowl.
מִזְרָק
This related word names a vessel used to hold liquid, while zāraq names its scattering; together they echo the handling and placement of blood.
zeriqah: Sprinkling or casting.
זְרִיקָה
This noun preserves the action of scattering found in the verse’s verb.
THE PATTERN
The altar ritual makes blood visible at the point of approach, tying its work to life given.
And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.For the living soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make a covering for your living souls, for it is the blood that covers the living soul.And nearly all things are cleansed in blood according to the instruction, and without the pouring out of blood, no release comes.THE THREAD
And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.Exodus uses the same Hebrew verb, זָרַק (zāraq, to dash or sprinkle), when blood is placed on the altar. Here, the action extends around the altar, making blood’s placement part of the altar’s full perimeter.
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