What Does Leviticus 23:14 Mean?
You shall eat neither bread, nor roasted grain, nor green grain, until this selfsame day that you have brought your drawing near to your God. It shall be a statute for the ages throughout your generations in all your sitting places.
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 ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.THE KEY
The new harvest is not treated as food until its offering is brought near to God.
THE MEANING
Bread, parched grain, and fresh ears remain uneaten until you bring an offering to God. The verse places presentation before consumption, and keeps that order across generations and every dwelling.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that provision is ready for consumption the moment it appears; here, bringing it near comes before eating.
THE ROOT
קָרְבָּן
qorban
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
draw near, approach
“drawing near” in this verse is qorban. English “offering” can sound like an object handed over; קָרְבָּן (qorban), an offering that draws near, shares its root with the verb “to approach.” The harvest becomes food only after its offering has made that movement toward nearness.
ALSO GROWS
qarav: to draw near, approach
קָרַב
This verb shares the root with “offering,” showing that presenting the harvest is a movement of approach.
qarov: near, close
קָרוֹב
The same root connects the offering with nearness itself, giving the act of presentation a relational dimension.
חֻקַּת
chuqqat
GROWS FROM
חקק
ḥ-q-q
inscribe, prescribe, decree
“statute for the ages” in this verse is chuqqat. The statute is expressed through a root associated with inscribing and prescribing. The order of bringing the offering before eating is carried into every generation and dwelling, as a prescribed rhythm of life.
ALSO GROWS
choq: a prescribed limit, statute
חֹק
This related word makes the boundary in the verse visible: eating waits until the offering is brought.
mechoqeq: one who decrees, a lawgiver
מְחוֹקֵק
This branch connects the statute to the act of establishing a lasting order.
THE PATTERN
The first portion is brought near before the rest of a new harvest is received as food.
The first of the first-ripened of your ground you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a kid in his mother's milk.And now, behold, I have brought the first-ripened fruit of the ground, which you, O LORD, have given me. And you set it down before the LORD your God, and bow down before the LORD your God.And if the first portion is set apart, so is the lump. And if the root is set apart, so are the branches.THE THREAD
And when a living soul brings near a gift to the LORD, his drawing near is of fine flour; he pours oil upon it and sets frankincense upon it.Here the verb קָרַב (qarav), “to draw near,” and the noun קָרְבָּן (qorban), “offering,” appear together from the same root. It makes visible what Leviticus 23:14 holds inside “offering”: the grain is brought near before it becomes food.
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