What Does Leviticus 1:16 Mean?
And he shall remove its crop with its feathers, and throw it beside the altar, eastward, to the place of the ashes.
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 pluck away his crop with his feathers, and cast it beside the altar on the east part, by the place of the ashes:THE KEY
The altar’s order includes a designated place for what is stripped from the offering.
THE MEANING
The crop and feathers are removed together and cast beside the altar, eastward, at the ash-place. Even what is taken from the bird has a stated destination in the ritual’s arrangement.
THE ROOT
דֶּשֶׁן
deshen
GROWS FROM
ד־ש־ן
d-sh-n
To be fat or grow luxuriant; the noun can mean fatness, abundance, or sacrificial ashes.
“to the place of the ashes” in this verse is deshen. The word for the ash-place belongs to a root family that also speaks of fatness and abundance. English “ashes” hides that fuller range, though here it still names the remains’ specific place in the ritual.
ALSO GROWS
dashen: To grow fat or become luxuriant
דָּשֵׁן
This verb carries the root’s sense of fullness beneath its other use for sacrificial ashes.
deshen: Fatness, abundance; sacrificial ashes
דֶּשֶׁן
The same Hebrew noun spans meanings that English separates, while this verse uses it for the designated ash-place.
וְהֵסִיר
wehesir
GROWS FROM
ס־ו־ר
s-w-r
To turn aside or depart; in this verb form, to remove or take away.
“remove” in this verse is wehesir. The removal verb grows from the language of turning aside or departing. The crop and feathers are purposefully taken away before the verse names where they go.
ALSO GROWS
sur: Turn aside; depart
סוּר
This basic form shows the movement away contained in the verb translated “pluck away.”
hesir: Remove; turn away
הֵסִיר
This form names the deliberate removal that prepares the parts for their stated destination.
וְהִשְׁלִיךְ
vehishlikh
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ך
sh-l-kh
To throw or cast.
“throw” in this verse is vehishlikh. The verse moves from removal to a concrete act of casting: the parts are not merely detached but placed beside the altar. The verb gives the disposal a clear direction and location.
ALSO GROWS
shalakh: Throw; cast away
שָׁלַךְ
The root’s basic action gives “cast” its physical force in the verse.
mashlikh: One who casts or throws
מַשְׁלִיךְ
This related form keeps the action concrete: something is deliberately thrown to a particular place.
THE PATTERN
Ritual removal includes a specific destination for what is taken away.
And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches he shall put upon his flesh, and lift up the ashes which the fire has eaten with the rising offering on the altar, and he shall set them beside the altar.For the bodies of those living ones, whose blood is carried into the set-apart places by the high priest for falling short, are burned outside the camp.THE THREAD
And he carries the whole young bull out beyond the camp to a clean place, to the pouring place of the ashes, and he burns it on wood with fire, and it is burned upon the pouring place of the ashes.The ash-place word is דֶּשֶׁן (deshen, ashes), the same Hebrew noun used in this verse. Leviticus 4:12 makes the destination explicit: the ashes are poured out in a clean place, showing how removal is paired with a named place.
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