What Does Leviticus 22:25 Mean?
Nor from a stranger's hand shall you bring near the bread of your God, any of these, for their ruin is in them, and blemishes are in them; they 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
Neither from a stranger’s hand shall ye offer the bread of your God of any of these; because their corruption is in them, and blemishes be in them: they shall not be accepted for you.THE KEY
The offering is a bringing-near, yet nearness cannot conceal the ruin already within the gift.
THE MEANING
The offering remains unacceptable when corruption and blemish are already within it, even when it arrives from another’s hand. Its source does not change the condition it carries as it is brought near.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a gift’s source or the act of presenting it can cancel the defect it carries. The verse says that condition remains present at the moment of offering.
THE ROOT
מָשְׁחָתָם
māshḥātām
GROWS FROM
שחת
שחת (shāḥat): to ruin, spoil, or destroy.
The verse says the ruin is in the offering, using language from a root that carries the sense of spoiling or destroying. Its defect is already present as the gift is brought near; the act of offering does not remove it.
ALSO GROWS
shiḥēt: He ruined or corrupted.
שִׁחֵת
This verb from שחת makes the verse’s “corruption” part of a wider family of words for damage and ruin.
shaḥat: Pit or destruction.
שַׁחַת
This related form gives the root’s ruin a concrete edge: something spoiled can be associated with destruction or a pit.
תַּקְרִיבוּ
taqrīvū
GROWS FROM
קרב
קרב (qārab): to approach or draw near.
The Hebrew verb translated “offer” means to bring near. That makes the verse’s boundary especially exact: what is brought near still carries the condition already within it.
ALSO GROWS
qorbān: Offering; something brought near.
קָרְבָּן
This noun makes the approach built into the offering explicit: the gift is what is brought near.
qārēv: Draw near or approach.
קָרֵב
This verb from the same root shows that “offer” belongs to a family of words about nearness, not only the presentation of a gift.
THE PATTERN
What is brought near retains its condition; the act of offering does not erase an existing defect.
But whatever has a blemish, that you shall not bring near, for it shall not be pleasing for you.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.but with the costly blood of the Anointed One, as of a lamb without blemish and without stain.THE THREAD
For you do not leave my living soul to Sheol; you do not give your faithful one to see the pit.Leviticus uses מָשְׁחָתָם (māshḥātām), from שחת, for corruption within an offering; Psalm 16:10 uses the same root in “see corruption.” The shared word opens a striking contrast: ruin is present in the rejected offering, while the Holy One is not abandoned to it.
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