What Does Leviticus 22:3 Mean?
Say to them, Whoever he is of all your seed throughout your generations, who draws near to the set-apart things, which the children of Israel set apart to the LORD, with his uncleanness upon him, that living soul shall be cut off from my face. I am 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
Say unto them, Whosoever he be of all your seed among your generations, that goeth unto the holy things, which the children of Israel hallow unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from my presence: I am the LORD.THE KEY
Approaching what is set apart is not neutral: when uncleanness is upon the one drawing near, the verse names separation from before the LORD.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you at the boundary of approach: when uncleanness is upon the one drawing near to what is set apart, that person is cut off from before the LORD. The consequence is stated plainly, and “I am the LORD” grounds the boundary in the speaker’s own identity.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that drawing near makes what clings to a person irrelevant.
THE ROOT
יִקְרַב
yiqrav
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־ב
q-r-b
Draw near; approach.
English makes this sound like ordinary movement, but יִקְרַב (yiqrav, draws near) shares its root with קָרְבָּן (qorbān, an offering understood as a drawing near). The verse frames approaching what is set apart as consequential nearness, not merely a change of location.
ALSO GROWS
qorbān: An offering; drawing near.
קָרְבָּן
This branch joins approach and offering in one root, revealing how the verse’s act of going near belongs to the language of drawing near.
qarov: Near; close.
קָרוֹב
The root also names nearness as a state, so the approach here concerns closeness to the LORD, not motion alone.
הַקֳּדָשִׁים
haqqodashim
GROWS FROM
ק־ד־ש
q-d-sh
Set apart; reserve for a sacred purpose.
“set-apart things” in this verse is haqqodashim. English gives “holy things” and “hallow” as different religious terms, but both grow from ק־ד־ש (q-d-sh, set apart). The verse repeats the same seed for the things and for the act that sets them apart to the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
qodesh: Set-apartness; what is set apart.
קֹדֶשׁ
This noun names the quality shared by the things the verse says a person approaches.
qadosh: Set apart.
קָדוֹשׁ
This form names the state created by the act of setting apart, tying the verse’s hallowing to the things’ distinct status.
וְנִכְרְתָה
wenikhretah
GROWS FROM
כ־ר־ת
k-r-t
Cut; sever.
“cut off” in this verse is wenikhretah. The root keeps the consequence concrete: the person is severed from before the LORD. Elsewhere it appears in כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berit, cut a covenant) and סֵפֶר כְּרִיתֻת (sefer keritut, certificate of divorce), where a cut marks a binding or broken relation.
ALSO GROWS
karat berit: Cut a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
This phrase preserves the root’s force of cutting in a binding relation, sharpening the relational weight of being cut off from before the LORD.
sefer keritut: Certificate of divorce; document of severance.
סֵפֶר כְּרִיתֻת
Here the root marks a severed bond, echoing the separation named in this verse.
THE PATTERN
Approach to what is set apart is bounded by whether defilement remains on the one approaching.
Who climbs the mountain of the LORD? Who stands in his set-apart place? Clean of hands and clear of heart, he who does not lift up his living soul to emptiness, nor swears in deceit.No common thing enters it, nor whoever makes foulness or a lie, except those written in the Lamb's scroll of life.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.“Come nigh” uses בִּקְרֹבַי (biqrovay, those near me), from ק־ר־ב (q-r-b, draw near); “sanctified” uses אֶקָּדֵשׁ (eqaddesh, be set apart), from ק־ד־ש (q-d-sh, set apart). Those are the same two roots behind “goeth unto” and “hallow” here, pairing nearness and set-apartness at the boundary the verse names.
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