What Does Leviticus 10:14 Mean?
And the waved breast and the lifted shoulder you shall eat in a clean place, you and your sons and your daughters with you, for they are your portion, and your sons' portion, given from the sacrifices of the wholeness offerings of the children of Israel.
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 the wave breast and heave shoulder shall ye eat in a clean place; thou, and thy sons, and thy daughters with thee: for they be thy due, and thy sons’ due, which are given out of the sacrifices of peace offerings of the children of Israel.THE KEY
The offering’s wholeness becomes tangible as a meal, apportioned to the priest’s household.
THE MEANING
The breast and shoulder from Israel’s peace offerings become an allotted meal for the priest, his sons, and his daughters, eaten in a clean place. The verse holds communal wholeness and bodily provision together in a specific share.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that what is devoted to God is only symbolic: this offering is real food, allotted to a particular household.
THE ROOT
שְׁלָמִים
shelamim
GROWS FROM
שלם
To be whole or complete; to bring to wholeness.
“wholeness offerings” in this verse is shelamim. The name of these offerings carries the sense of wholeness found in shalom. Here, that wholeness takes a concrete form: a portion of food is shared and received.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being, peace.
שָׁלוֹם
This shared root lets the offerings’ name carry more than calm; it points to wholeness embodied in the meal.
shalem: Whole, complete, intact.
שָׁלֵם
The branch echoes the offering’s sense of wholeness in the specific share set apart for the priestly household.
חָקְךָ
ḥoqkha
GROWS FROM
חקק
To cut or inscribe, and by extension to fix or prescribe.
The word rendered “due” names a prescribed portion, from a root associated with inscribing or fixing a boundary. The food is a marked-out share within the offering, assigned to the priest and his children.
ALSO GROWS
ḥoq: A prescribed portion, statute, or allotted share.
חֹק
This is the form behind “thy due”: the verse names a definite share for the household.
ḥaqaq: To inscribe, cut in, or decree.
חָקַק
The root’s image of marking something out illuminates how the offering’s portion is specifically assigned.
THE PATTERN
What is set apart for service at the altar becomes a material share for those who serve there.
The priests, the Levites, all the tribe of Levi, have no portion nor inheritance with Israel; they eat the LORD's offerings of fire, and his inheritance.Do you not know that those who serve the set-apart things eat from the temple, and those who sit beside the altar share with the altar?THE THREAD
The LORD lift up his face upon you, and give you wholeness.The word translated “peace” is שָׁלוֹם (shalom), from the same root, שלם (sh-l-m), as שְׁלָמִים (shelamim), the offerings named here. That shared root lets the offering’s wholeness take tangible form in the food portion given to the priestly household.
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