What Does Leviticus 10:15 Mean?
The lifted shoulder and the waved breast they shall bring with the offerings of fire of the fat, to wave it as a wave offering before the face of the LORD. And it shall be yours, and your sons' with you, by a statute for the ages, as the LORD has commanded.
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
The heave shoulder and the wave breast shall they bring with the offerings made by fire of the fat, to wave it for a wave offering before the LORD; and it shall be thine, and thy sons’ with thee, by a statute for ever; as the LORD hath commanded.THE KEY
What is lifted and waved before the LORD does not vanish from human life; it becomes a named share for the serving household.
THE MEANING
The raised portion and waved breast come before the LORD with the fat, then belong to Aaron and his sons as a continuing share. The verse holds presentation and provision in one act: what is moved before the LORD remains tangible provision for the serving household. The statute gives that share an enduring place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that a portion presented before God must cease to be material provision: here it becomes the serving household’s concrete share.
THE ROOT
תְּרוּמָה
terumah
GROWS FROM
רום
rûm
rise, be high, lift up
“lifted shoulder” in this verse is terumah. The raised portion carries the motion of lifting in its name through רום (rûm, rise or be high). Here, what is lifted is also assigned to Aaron’s household, joining presentation before the LORD with provision for those who serve.
ALSO GROWS
rûm: rise, be high
רוּם
This verb is the seed of the raised portion’s name and keeps the act of elevation inside the offering.
marom: height, high place
מָרוֹם
The same root gives a concrete sense of being raised, illuminating the portion’s movement upward before it becomes a household share.
תְּנוּפָה
tenufah
GROWS FROM
נוף
nûph
move to and fro, wave, brandish
“waved breast” in this verse is tenufah. English can make “wave offering” sound like a category, while נוף (nûph, move to and fro or wave) keeps the motion visible. The portion is moved before the LORD and then named as the priests’ share, so presentation and allocation remain joined.
ALSO GROWS
hēnîf: wave, cause to move to and fro
הֵנִיף
This verb form names the action in the verse; its weak middle consonant shifts in the standard conjugation of this root.
tenufat: wave offering of, the construct form of “wave offering”
תְּנוּפַת
The construct form in “breast of the wave offering” ties the portion itself to the movement named by the root.
עוֹלָם
ʿolam
GROWS FROM
עלם
ʿ-l-m
hide, conceal, be out of sight; associated with an unseen or distant horizon
“statute for the ages” in this verse is ʿolam. The phrase rendered “for ever” uses עוֹלָם (ʿolam, age or long duration), a word associated with what lies beyond sight. The statute gives this household share a continuing place through the ages, without making the duration disappear into an abstract idea of endlessness.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālam: hide, conceal
עָלַם
The root’s sense of what is out of view lends the word for an age its horizon beyond what can be seen.
neʿlam: hidden, concealed
נֶעְלָם
This related form makes the hidden horizon explicit, adding depth to the verse’s language of a share that continues through an age.
THE PATTERN
A sacred portion can be presented before God and still be assigned as concrete provision for those who serve.
And the LORD said unto Aaron, Behold, I also have given you the watch of my lifted offerings, of all the set-apart things of the children of Israel. To you I have given them, by reason of the oil smeared upon you, and to your sons, by an engraved statute for the ages.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
His own hands shall bring the offerings of fire to the LORD, the fat upon the breast he shall bring, that the breast may be waved as a waving offering before the LORD.Leviticus 7:30 pairs הֵנִיף (hēnîf, wave) with תְּנוּפָה (tenufah, wave offering), both from נוף (nûph, move to and fro). Leviticus 10:15 carries that same motion into its destination: the portion passes before the LORD and becomes a continuing household share.
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