What Does Leviticus 14:51 Mean?
And he shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the worm-red yarn, and the living bird, and immerse them in the blood of the slaughtered bird, and in the living waters, and sprinkle the house seven times.
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 take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times:THE KEY
The “running water” is literally “living waters” in Hebrew, sharing its life-word with the living bird dipped in a slain bird’s blood.
THE MEANING
The rite cleanses the house by bringing together blood from a slain bird, a living bird, and running water before sevenfold sprinkling. The Hebrew names both bird and water with the language of life, placing life inside the very act that includes death. The verse holds both together without erasing either.
THE ROOT
חַיָּה
ḥayyāh
GROWS FROM
חיה
ḥ-y-h
To live, be alive.
The Hebrew behind “running water” is מַיִם חַיִּים (mayim ḥayyim, “living waters”), built from the same חיה (ḥ-y-h) root as חַיָּה (ḥayyāh, “living”), the bird. English separates a living creature from a water source, while Hebrew gives both the same life-language; the rite places that shared language beside the slain bird’s blood.
ALSO GROWS
ḥay: Alive, living.
חַי
This is the life-word describing the bird, which remains alive as it enters the rite.
ḥayyim: Life; living.
חַיִּים
In מַיִם חַיִּים (mayim ḥayyim, “living waters”), the same root names the water used in the rite.
ḥāyâ: To live, be alive.
חָיָה
This verb gives the shared root’s core sense: the bird and the water are both described through the language of being alive.
THE PATTERN
Life passes through a cleansing rite and flows outward as a source of renewal.
But he shall send the living bird away out of the city into the open fields, and make a covering for the house. And it shall be clean.For with you is the spring of life; in your light we see light.The one who leans his weight into me, as the writing has said, rivers of living waters will flow from his belly.THE THREAD
For with you is the spring of life; in your light we see light.Leviticus calls the water מַיִם חַיִּים (mayim ḥayyim, “living waters”); Psalm 36:9 uses חַיִּים (ḥayyim, “life”) for the fountain with God. The shared root חיה (ḥ-y-h, “live”) opens the washing water into an image of life as a source.
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