What Does Leviticus 1:12 Mean?
And he shall cut it into its pieces, with its head and its fat, and the priest shall arrange them upon the wood that is on the fire, which is 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 cut it into his pieces, with his head and his fat: and the priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar:THE KEY
The offering is divided into pieces, then the Hebrew root for arranging places those pieces in deliberate order over the fire.
THE MEANING
The verse keeps the offering concrete: its pieces are named, with the head and fat still in view. The priest arranges them on wood already over the altar fire, holding division and deliberate placement together in one act.
THE ROOT
עָרַךְ
ʿārakh
GROWS FROM
ערך
To arrange, set out, or prepare in an array.
“arrange them” in this verse is ʿārakh. English gives no hint that “lay in order” shares a root with words for rows and setting a table. Here, after the animal is cut apart, that root describes the deliberate arrangement of its pieces on the wood above the fire.
ALSO GROWS
maʿărāḵāh: An array or row.
מַעֲרָכָה
Leviticus 24:6 uses this word for rows of bread set before the LORD, echoing the verse’s emphasis on arranged placement.
taʿarokh: You set out or prepare; used of setting a table in Psalm 23:5.
תַּעֲרֹךְ
The same root can describe provisions deliberately set out, showing that its sense of arrangement extends beyond the altar.
THE PATTERN
What is presented in sacred service is placed in deliberate order on a prepared surface.
And he arranged the wood, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid it upon the wood, and said, Fill four jars with waters, and pour it upon the rising offering, and upon the wood.And you shall set them in two rows, six to a row, upon the pure table before the LORD.Let all things become well shaped, and in rank.THE THREAD
And you shall set them in two rows, six to a row, upon the pure table before the LORD.The Hebrew word for “rows” here, מַעֲרָכוֹת (maʿărāḵōṯ), comes from the same root, ערך, as “lay them in order.” The shared root links the arranged pieces on the altar with the bread set out in rows before the LORD.
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