What Does Leviticus 19:5 Mean?
And if you slaughter a sacrifice of wholeness to the LORD, you shall slaughter it to be pleasing for you.
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 if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD, ye shall offer it at your own will.THE KEY
The peace offering carries wholeness in its Hebrew name, and the verse places its offering in willing consent.
THE MEANING
Your approach to the LORD appears here as an offering of wholeness, brought willingly. The verse joins what is offered with the wholeness it names; the offering is not detached from its meaning.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a sacred gift only counts when pressure forces it; the verse places the offering in willing consent.
THE ROOT
שְׁלָמִים
shelamim
GROWS FROM
שלם
To be whole or complete; to make whole or complete.
“of wholeness” in this verse is shelamim. The word rendered “peace offerings” grows from the root for wholeness, so the offering carries the condition it names. The same root gives words for peace and being whole, holding the offering together with wholeness rather than mere quiet.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness; peace.
שָׁלוֹם
It shares the root שלם with shelamim, revealing that the offering’s name and the wholeness sought belong to one word family.
shalem: Whole; complete.
שָׁלֵם
This form shares the same root consonants and shows the completeness carried within the name of the offering.
THE PATTERN
An offering that expresses wholeness comes from willing consent rather than compulsion.
And they came, every one whose heart lifted him, and every one whom his breath made free-hearted, and they brought the LORD's lifted offering for the work of the tent of meeting, and for all its serving, and for the set-apart garments.With a willing gift I will slaughter to you; I will extend my hands to your nature, O LORD, for it is good.Each one, as his heart has taken hold, so let him give, not from grief or from pressure, for God loves a glad giver.THE THREAD
Turn aside from evil and do good; seek wholeness and pursue it.The Hebrew word for “peace offerings,” shelamim, shares its root with shalom, “wholeness; peace.” Psalm 34 speaks of that same wholeness as something sought and pursued, opening the offering here as both what is brought and what is desired.
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