What Does Leviticus 2:3 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 the remnant 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 word for what remains shares its root with “advantage,” and this remainder is assigned as holy provision.
THE MEANING
The portion that remains from the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons, and it still bears the designation “most holy” among the LORD’s offerings by fire. What remains has a place as provision within the sacred order, rather than being left outside it as waste.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that what is left over has become worthless or ordinary: this remnant is assigned to specific recipients and remains most holy.
THE ROOT
וְהַנּוֹתֶרֶת
vehanoteret
GROWS FROM
יתר
to remain, be left over, or be in excess
“what remains” in this verse is vehanoteret. The Hebrew word for the portion that remains grows from יתר, a root that also gives the word for advantage or gain. Here the remainder is not empty excess: it becomes provision with a named place and purpose.
ALSO GROWS
yeter: remainder, rest, surplus
יֶתֶר
It shares the verse’s root and makes clear that “remnant” belongs to a family of words for what is left.
yitron: profit, advantage, gain
יִתְרוֹן
This branch reveals the root’s surprising reach from what remains to what remains as gain.
קֹדֶשׁ קָדָשִׁים
qodesh qodashim
GROWS FROM
קדש
to set apart for sacred use
“most set apart” in this verse is qodesh qodashim. The phrase is literally “holy of holies,” repeating the קדש root to mark an intensified set-apart status. That designation still covers the portion left over: its place in the offering changes, but it does not become common.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: set apart, holy
קָדוֹשׁ
It names the same set-apart quality applied here to the remaining portion.
miqdash: sanctuary, set-apart place
מִקְדָּשׁ
It shows how the root can describe not only sacred status but also a place devoted to sacred use.
qiddesh: set apart, consecrate
קִדֵּשׁ
This verb expresses the action behind the designation: something is placed within a sacred order.
THE PATTERN
What remains after an offering is given a place in a continuing order of provision.
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 shall be yours of the most set-apart things, kept from the fire. Every drawing near of theirs, every gift of theirs, and every offering for the falling short of theirs, and every guilt offering of theirs, which they bring back to me, shall be most set apart for you and for your sons.And they lifted up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces, and of the fish.THE THREAD
What remains to a man from all the toil that he toils under the sun?The Hebrew word translated “profit” is יִתְרוֹן (yitron), from the same יתר root as “remnant” here. The shared root joins what is left over with what remains as gain; Leviticus gives its remainder a sacred use.
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