What Does Leviticus 2:15 Mean?
And you set oil upon it, and place frankincense upon it; it is a gift.
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 thou shalt put oil upon it, and lay frankincense thereon: it is a meat offering.THE KEY
Oil rooted in richness and frankincense rooted in whiteness are placed upon the offering, making its preparation part of the gift.
THE MEANING
Here, a gift is visibly prepared: oil is set upon it and frankincense laid over it, and the whole is named an offering. What rests upon the gift belongs to its presentation: richness and white aromatic resin accompany what is given.
THE ROOT
שֶׁמֶן
shemen
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ן
sh-m-n
To be fat or become rich.
The word for oil grows from a root of fatness and richness. English names the substance; the Hebrew also carries the sense of abundance in what is placed upon the offering.
ALSO GROWS
shamen: Fat, rich.
שָׁמֵן
The same root describes richness as a quality, echoing the abundance carried by the oil placed on the offering.
mashmannim: Rich or fat portions of food.
מַשְׁמַנִּים
This branch uses the root for rich food, showing how the oil’s word-family carries the sense of richness beyond a liquid.
לְבֹנָה
levonah
GROWS FROM
ל־ב־ן
l-b-n
To be white.
The Hebrew name for frankincense carries the root for whiteness, a quality hidden by the English word. The offering is presented with a resin whose name preserves its color as part of its identity.
ALSO GROWS
lavan: White.
לָבָן
This is the root’s plain color-word, making the whiteness within the name of frankincense visible.
libben: Make white, whiten.
לִבֵּן
This verb carries the same root into an action, showing the root’s connection to both the quality of whiteness and its appearance.
וְנָתַתָּ
wenatatta
GROWS FROM
נ־ת־ן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
The verb translated “put” comes from the root used for giving and placing. Here the giving is concrete: the oil is set upon the offering, and its placement becomes part of the presentation.
ALSO GROWS
natan: Give, set, or place.
נָתַן
The root verb holds giving and placing together, as the oil is placed onto what is offered.
mattanah: Gift.
מַתָּנָה
This noun from the same root names a gift, linking the act of placing oil with the offering’s character as something given.
THE PATTERN
What is presented as an offering carries the substance placed with it, whether oil, incense, or prayer named as incense.
And he shall take from it his fistful of the fine flour of the gift, and of its oil, and all the white resin which is upon the gift, and shall burn it upon the altar for a scent that settles, even its remembrance, to the LORD.With the one lamb, a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a fourth of a hin of crushed oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine for a poured offering.Let my prayer be set before you as smoke, and the lifting of my palms as the evening offering.THE THREAD
With the one lamb, a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a fourth of a hin of crushed oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine for a poured offering.The same Hebrew word for oil, שֶׁמֶן (shemen, oil), appears here in a grain offering mingled with beaten oil. Its root also carries the sense of richness, so the oil is not merely beside the offering: it is mixed into what is given.
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