What Does Leviticus 21:6 Mean?
They are set apart to their God, and they do not pierce the name of their God; for the fires of the LORD, the bread of their God, they bring near; therefore they are set apart.
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
They shall be holy unto their God, and not profane the name of their God: for the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and the bread of their God, they do offer: therefore they shall be holy.THE KEY
The verse makes offering an act of nearness: those who bring God’s bread near are themselves bound to carry God’s set-apart nature.
THE MEANING
Those who bring the LORD’s offerings near are set apart to their God; their service and their bearing of God’s name belong together. The name is not detached from the lives of those who carry it: what they bring near shapes how they are called to stand before God now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that sacred work can be done while God’s name is treated as ordinary; the ones who bring God’s offerings are themselves called set apart.
THE ROOT
מַקְרִיבִם
maqrivim bringing near
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־ב
qarav
to approach, draw near
“bring near” in this verse is maqrivim bringing near. The verse’s word for offering is literally built on the movement of drawing near. The offering is not only something transferred; the root joins the gift, the approach, and the one who approaches.
ALSO GROWS
qorbān: offering, something brought near
קָרְבָּן
The related noun names an offering through its nearness to God, revealing the shared root beneath gift and approach.
qarov: near
קָרוֹב
The same root names closeness, so the priests’ offering is bound to a movement toward nearness.
קְדֹשִׁים
qedoshim set apart
GROWS FROM
ק־ד־שׁ
qadash
to set apart, make sacred
This root appears in the verse’s opening description and its closing declaration: the priests are set apart, and they are to be sacred. Holiness here marks the people who serve as well as the offerings they bring.
ALSO GROWS
qodesh: holiness, sacredness
קֹדֶשׁ
The closing phrase uses this form to name the sacred condition that belongs to the priests.
miqdash: sanctuary, sacred place
מִקְדָּשׁ
The related word shows how the same root can mark a place as set apart, just as this verse marks the priests.
יְחַלְּלוּ
yeḥallelū they profane
GROWS FROM
ח־ל־ל
chalal
to profane, make common
“pierce” in this verse is yeḥallelū they profane. The warning is about treating as common what is set apart. Since the object is God’s name, God’s nature as carried and known, the verse connects how the name is honored with how its bearers live.
ALSO GROWS
ḥol: common, ordinary
חֹל
This related word names what is not set apart, clarifying the contrast with the priests’ sacred calling.
ḥillul: profanation, desecration
חִלּוּל
This noun names the act of making sacred things common, the precise danger the verse warns against.
THE PATTERN
Those who carry what belongs to God are set apart to make God’s character visible through their lives.
And you shall be to me a governance of priests and a set-apart nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.But you are a chosen lineage, a royal priesthood, a set-apart nation, a people made his own, so that you may tell out the excellences of the one who called you out of darkness into his wondrous light.So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the end that God is given weight.THE THREAD
Then Moses said to Aaron, This is what the LORD spoke, saying, In those who draw near to me, I will be set apart, and before the face of all the people I will be given weight. And Aaron kept still.The Hebrew for “come nigh” shares the root qarav with the priests’ “offer” in this verse: bringing an offering near and drawing near are one movement. Leviticus 10:3 makes explicit what Leviticus 21:6 holds together, the ones who approach God are where God’s set-apartness is seen.
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