What Does Leviticus 22:15 Mean?
And they shall not pierce the set-apart things of the children of Israel, which they bring near to the LORD;
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 they shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, which they offer unto the LORD;THE KEY
To profane is to make common what has been set apart.
THE MEANING
What you bring to the LORD does not become common simply because it passes through human hands. The verse speaks of something already set apart, then names the human act that can profane it. Sacredness is held in the tension between what is offered and how it is treated.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that offering something to God makes its later treatment inconsequential: what is set apart can still be profaned.
THE ROOT
יְחַלְּלוּ
yeḥallelū
GROWS FROM
חלל
ḥ-l-l
To make common or violate what is set apart.
“pierce” in this verse is yeḥallelū. English “profane” can sound like disrespect, but this Hebrew verb carries the act of making what is set apart common. The verse describes a change in how something already sacred is treated.
ALSO GROWS
ḥol: Common, ordinary, or profane.
חֹל
This branch names the ordinary state that profaning brings into contact with what is set apart.
ḥillul: Profanation or desecration.
חִלּוּל
This noun makes the act explicit: profanation is the violation of what has been set apart.
קָדְשֵׁי
qodšê
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
To set apart as sacred.
“set-apart things” in this verse is qodšê. The phrase names the holy things of Israel: things set apart. Beside the root for profaning, it reveals the hinge of the verse: profanation collapses the distinction between what is set apart and what is common.
ALSO GROWS
qādōš: Set apart, sacred.
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective carries the same quality as the holy things named in the verse.
qiddēš: Set apart or consecrate.
קִדֵּשׁ
This verb shows the action of making something sacred by setting it apart.
יָרִימוּ
yārîmû
GROWS FROM
רום
r-w-m
To rise, raise, or lift up.
“bring near” in this verse is yārîmû. The Hebrew verb rendered “offer” is built from the root for lifting up. Its related noun for a contribution or offering preserves that image: what is given is lifted toward the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
rām: High or raised.
רָם
This branch makes the root’s sense of elevation visible in the act of offering.
terūmāh: A contribution or offering, something lifted up.
תְּרוּמָה
This offering word shares the lifting root and illuminates the movement in “which they offer.”
THE PATTERN
What is set apart is profaned when the boundary between sacred and common is erased.
Nor shall you pierce my set-apart nature; but I will be set apart among the children of Israel. I am the LORD who sets you apart.Her priests have done violence to my instruction, and have made my set-apart things common. They have not split the set-apart from the common, nor have they shown the split between the unclean and the clean. They have shut their eyes to my sabbaths, and I am made common among them.lest any be unchaste, or one who treads on what is set apart, like Esau, who for a single bite gave away his birthright.THE THREAD
And you shall carry no falling short because of it, when you have lifted up the fat from it. Nor shall you defile the set-apart things of the children of Israel, lest you die.Numbers 18:32 repeats the Hebrew root חלל (ḥ-l-l) for profaning and קדש (q-d-sh) for holy things. It also uses the lifting root רום (r-w-m), the root behind “offer” here, keeping the raised offering and the danger of profaning it in the same view.
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