What Does Leviticus 21:18 Mean?
For whatever man carries a blemish does not draw near, whether blind, or limping, or split in the nose, or with a limb too long.
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
For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous,THE KEY
The Hebrew ties “approach” and “offer” to the same root, making bodily exclusion part of the very act of drawing near.
THE MEANING
You encounter a rule that makes a priest’s body a condition of whether he may approach the altar to serve. It names blindness, lameness, a flat nose, and a superfluous bodily feature as grounds for exclusion, without softening the boundary.
THE ROOT
יִקְרָב
yiqrav
GROWS FROM
קרב
qarab
Draw near; approach or bring near.
The Hebrew uses the same root קרב (qarab, “draw near”) for “approach” and for “offer,” literally bringing something near. That ties the priest’s barred access to the act of offering itself: the text names bodily conditions that exclude him from enacting that nearness.
ALSO GROWS
hiqriv: Bring near; offer.
הִקְרִיב
This verb shares the root of “approach,” showing that offering is itself an act of bringing near.
qorbān: Offering; something brought near.
קָרְבָּן
The word for an offering carries the same root, joining the gift and the act of approaching.
THE PATTERN
In the offering laws, visible bodily wholeness regulates who may serve and what may be brought near.
Speak to Aaron, saying, “Whoever among your seed in their generations carries any blemish does not draw near to bring near the bread of his God.”And if it has a blemish, lame or blind, or any evil blemish, you shall not slaughter it to the LORD your God.When you bring near the blind for slaughter, is it not evil? And when you bring near the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Bring it near now to your governor. Will he be pleased with you, or lift your face? says the LORD of hosts.THE THREAD
And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.Leviticus names the blind and lame among those barred from approaching to offer; Matthew places the blind and lame in the temple, coming to Jesus, where he heals them. Their presence there creates a sharp reversal of access without erasing the boundary this verse states.
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