What Does Leviticus 22:20 Mean?
But whatever has a blemish, that you shall not bring near, for it shall not be pleasing for you.
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
But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer: for it shall not be acceptable for you.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb translated “offer” means “bring near,” so the verse makes the offering’s condition part of the approach itself.
THE MEANING
A blemished offering is not acceptable to bring near; the verse holds the blemish and the refusal together. Its condition is part of what is presented, and presenting it does not make it acceptable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that giving something automatically makes it acceptable is undone here: the offering’s condition still matters.
THE ROOT
תַקְרִיבוּ
taqrîvû
GROWS FROM
קרב
qarav
Approach, draw near; in the causative form used here, bring near.
“bring near” in this verse is taqrîvû. The Hebrew verb is a causative form of קרב, “draw near,” so the offering is what someone brings near. The same consonants appear in קָרְבָּן, “offering,” and קָרוֹב, “near,” keeping the sense of approach inside the ritual word.
ALSO GROWS
qorbān: Offering; what is brought near.
קָרְבָּן
This word carries the same consonants and makes the approach sense of “offer” visible.
qarov: Near, close.
קָרוֹב
The same root names nearness itself, linking the offering to what is brought near.
THE PATTERN
A blemish in what is offered prevents it from being accepted as an offering brought near.
And whoever brings near a wholeness offering to the LORD to set apart his vow, or a willing offering from the herd or the sheep, it shall be whole to be pleasing; no blemish shall be in it.And if it has a blemish, lame or blind, or any evil blemish, you shall not slaughter it to the LORD your God.but with the costly blood of the Anointed One, as of a lamb without blemish and without stain.THE THREAD
But for me, drawing near to God is good; I have set my shelter in the Lord LORD, to recount all your works.“Draw near” here comes from the same root, קרב (qarav), “approach,” as “offer” in Leviticus. The psalm makes the root’s sense plain: the word for bringing an offering near also describes a person’s approach to God.
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