What Does Leviticus 22:19 Mean?

You shall bring near, to be pleasing for you, a whole male from the herd, from the sheep, or from the goats.

Leviticus 22:19 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Ye shall offer at your own will a male without blemish, of the beeves, of the sheep, or of the goats.

THE KEY

The offering is both freely given and whole: willingness and wholeness stand together.

THE MEANING

The verse names a male animal from the cattle, sheep, or goats, offered willingly and without blemish. The choice to offer and the animal’s wholeness are both part of what is presented.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Good intent alone makes an offering complete; the verse also names the condition of what is offered.

THE ROOT

תָּמִים

tamim

GROWS FROM

תמם

To be complete or whole; to reach completion.

“a whole male” in this verse is tamim. ⁨תָּמִים⁩ names an animal that is whole and sound. The same root also carries the sense of completeness and integrity, so the offering’s soundness is part of its wholeness, not a separate detail.

ALSO GROWS

tom: Integrity, completeness.

תֹּם

This noun shares the root’s consonants and shows how wholeness can describe integrity as well as soundness.

tamam: To be complete or come to an end.

תָּמַם

The verb makes the root’s core sense visible: the offered animal is described with a word from the family of being complete.

THE PATTERN

In the language of offerings, willingness does not erase the stated condition of wholeness.

If his drawing near from the herd is a rising offering, he shall bring near a whole male to the opening of the tent of appointed meeting, and he shall bring it near of his own pleasure before the face of the LORD.

Leviticus 1:3 · SDVThe verse joins voluntary giving and an animal without blemish, holding willingness and wholeness together.

And if it has a blemish, lame or blind, or any evil blemish, you shall not slaughter it to the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 15:21 · SDVThe verse makes the condition explicit by excluding an animal with a blemish from the offering.

but with the costly blood of the Anointed One, as of a lamb without blemish and without stain.

1 Peter 1:19 · SDVThe image of the unblemished offering appears again in the description of the lamb.

THE THREAD

You shall be whole with the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 18:13 · SDV

The Hebrew word translated “perfect” here is ⁨תָּמִים⁩ (tamim), from the same root as “without blemish” in Leviticus 22:19. The shared word carries wholeness from the soundness of the offering into the language of being whole with God.

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