What Does Leviticus 2:10 Mean?
And what remains of the gift is Aaron's and his sons'; it is most set apart of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.
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 that which is left of the meat offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’: it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.THE KEY
The remainder is called “most holy,” so the offering’s sacredness extends into what is left.
THE MEANING
What remains after the offering is presented has a place: it belongs to Aaron and his sons, and is called most holy. The verse holds provision and consecration together, showing that what is left can still have a defined place within the sacred order of giving.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what remains after the main offering is merely scraps or spiritually lesser: this remainder is named most holy.
THE ROOT
הַנּוֹתֶרֶת
hanoteret
GROWS FROM
י־ת־ר
To remain, be left over, or be in excess.
The word for what remains comes from a root that also carries the sense of surplus. The leftover is not outside the offering’s meaning; it is a portion with a place and a recipient.
ALSO GROWS
yeter: Remainder, surplus
יֶתֶר
This branch makes the connection between what is left and what exceeds the portion already given.
yitron: Gain, profit, advantage
יִתְרוֹן
The root can describe what remains as a gain, adding weight to the idea that the remainder is not worthless.
קֹדֶשׁ קָדָשִׁים
qodesh qadashim
GROWS FROM
ק־ד־שׁ
To set apart, consecrate, mark as belonging to the sacred.
“most set apart” in this verse is qodesh qadashim. The Hebrew intensifies the word by repeating its root: literally, “holy of holies.” The portion left over is marked as especially set apart, not as a lesser scrap of the offering.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart, holy
קָדוֹשׁ
It shares the root’s sense of being marked out as belonging to the sacred.
miqdash: Sanctuary, set-apart place
מִקְדָּשׁ
The sanctuary is formed around the same idea of set-apartness that defines the remainder here.
THE PATTERN
What is set apart for the LORD becomes provision for those who serve at the altar.
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.The priests, the Levites, all the tribe of Levi, have no portion nor inheritance with Israel; they eat the LORD's offerings of fire, and his inheritance.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
And what remains of it Aaron and his sons shall eat. With unleavened bread it shall be eaten in the set-apart place. In the court of the tent of meeting they shall eat it.This verse repeats הַנּוֹתֶרֶת (hanoteret, the portion remaining) for the grain offering, then says Aaron and his sons eat it in the holy place. The shared root ties the remainder in both verses to provision that stays within the sacred order.
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