What Does Leviticus 17:4 Mean?
And does not bring it to the door of the tent of meeting, to bring a drawing near to the LORD before the dwelling of the LORD. Blood shall be counted to that man; he has poured out blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people.
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 bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering unto the LORD before the tabernacle of the LORD; blood shall be imputed unto that man; he hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people:THE KEY
The “offering” is a drawing near: when the life is taken without being brought near to the LORD, its blood is counted to the one who shed it.
THE MEANING
The taking of the animal is not treated as private slaughter: its blood is counted to the person who sheds it. Without bringing it near to the LORD’s dwelling, the text names him a shedder and cuts him off from his people.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Leaving out the act of bringing it near does not make the killing neutral; the verse names it as bloodshed and holds the blood to the one who shed it.
THE ROOT
קָרְבָּן
qorban
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
Approach; draw near.
“to bring a drawing near” in this verse is qorban. The word rendered “offering” is qorban, “drawing near,” from the root for approaching. The verse binds the animal’s death to an act of drawing near; without that approach, the blood is reckoned to the one who poured it out.
ALSO GROWS
qarab: Approach; draw near.
קָרַב
This verb makes explicit the movement held in qorban: the offering is a drawing near.
qarov: Near; close.
קָרוֹב
This related form echoes the nearness at the center of the offering’s name.
יֵחָשֵׁב
yeḥāshēv
GROWS FROM
חשב
ḥ-sh-b
Think, reckon, account, or plan.
“counted to” in this verse is yeḥāshēv. “Imputed” can sound like an abstract penalty assigned from outside. This Hebrew word belongs to a family of thinking and accounting, and the next phrase names what is counted: “he hath shed blood.”
ALSO GROWS
ḥāshav: Think, reckon, or plan.
חָשַׁב
The verb shows that the blood is accounted to this man, rather than left as an unnamed consequence.
maḥashavah: Thought or plan.
מַחֲשָׁבָה
This noun shares the root’s sense of something held in thought, echoing the verse’s language of reckoning.
וְנִכְרַת
venikhrat
GROWS FROM
כרת
k-r-t
Cut; sever.
“Cut off” carries the concrete image of severance: the man is removed from the circle of his people. The same verb appears in the expression “cut a covenant,” so here its force is the rupture of belonging.
ALSO GROWS
karat: Cut or sever.
כָּרַת
This is the root verb behind the verse’s image of being cut off.
karet: Excision; being cut off.
כָּרֵת
This form names the condition of severance that the verse applies to the man.
karat berit: Cut a covenant; make a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The same root can describe a binding relation; here it marks the man’s severance from his people.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats shed blood as an accountable reality that cannot be erased by distance or status.
Whoever pours out the blood of man, by man his blood shall be poured out, for in the shape of God he made man.So you shall not defile the land where you are, for blood defiles the land; and the land cannot be covered over for the blood poured out in it, except by the blood of the one who poured it out.So that upon you may come all the aligned blood poured out upon the earth, from the blood of the aligned Abel to the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.THE THREAD
Whoever pours out the blood of man, by man his blood shall be poured out, for in the shape of God he made man.Both verses use שָׁפַךְ (shafakh, pour out) for the act rendered “shed.” Genesis ties poured blood to an answering flow of blood; Leviticus names the shedder and the severance that follows.
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