What Does Leviticus 14:14 Mean?
And the priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering, and set it on the tip of the right ear of the one being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot.
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 priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot:THE KEY
The Hebrew name of the guilt offering also carries the sense of liability, and its blood marks the ear, hand, and foot, the places where a life receives, acts, and moves.
THE MEANING
The verse pictures cleansing as reaching the places where you receive, act, and move: ear, hand, and foot. The blood of the guilt offering makes this restoration embodied, and the offering’s Hebrew name also carries the sense of guilt or liability.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Cleansing is only an invisible status that leaves the ways you receive, act, and move untouched.
THE ROOT
אָשָׁם
ʾāshām
GROWS FROM
א־ש־ם
ʾ-sh-m
Guilt or liability; as a noun, the guilt offering associated with it.
“guilt offering” in this verse is ʾāshām. The word names both liability and the offering associated with it. Its blood reaches ear, hand, and foot, tracing the response across receiving, acting, and moving.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāshēm: Be guilty or liable.
אָשֵׁם
This verbal form names the condition carried by the same root as the offering.
ʾāshām: Guilt; guilt offering.
אָשָׁם
This noun is the word used for the offering whose blood marks the person in this verse.
THE PATTERN
Cleansing and consecration are marked across a person’s hearing, action, and movement.
Then you slaughter the ram, and take some of his blood, and set it upon the lobe of Aaron's right ear, and upon the lobe of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot, and dash the blood upon the altar all around.And he slaughtered it, and Moses took some of its blood, and set it upon the lobe of Aaron's right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot.How much more will the blood of the Anointed One, who through the breath of the ages brought himself near without blemish to God, cleanse our shared sight from dead works to serve the living God.THE THREAD
And he slaughtered it, and Moses took some of its blood, and set it upon the lobe of Aaron's right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot.Leviticus 8:23 uses the same three placements in the rite that sets Aaron apart. The parallel gives cleansing and consecration one bodily map: receiving, acting, and moving.
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