What Does Leviticus 23:18 Mean?
You shall bring near with the bread seven whole lambs in their first year, and one young bull, and two rams. They shall be a rising offering to the LORD, with their grain gifts and their poured offerings, an offering of fire, a fragrance that settles to 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
And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the LORD, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the LORD.THE KEY
The word translated “offer” means “draw near,” while the burnt offering is named for what rises.
THE MEANING
This verse makes nearness tangible through specified animals, a meal offering, and drink offerings brought before the LORD. The burnt offering rises in fire as an aroma described as pleasing to the LORD.
THE ROOT
וְהִקְרַבְתֶּם
vehiqravtem
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
To approach or draw near.
“bring near” in this verse is vehiqravtem. The verb translated “offer” carries the motion of bringing near. Its root links the act of offering with nearness itself: what is offered is brought toward the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
qorbān: Offering; a gift or act of drawing near.
קָרְבָּן
This noun makes explicit the nearness already carried by the verse’s verb “offer.”
qarov: Near; close.
קָרוֹב
The same root describes closeness, showing that offering and nearness share a word-family.
עֹלָה
ʿolah
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-l-h
To go up, rise, or ascend.
“rising offering” in this verse is ʿolah. The offering’s name comes from the language of rising. Beside “draw near,” it gives the verse a paired movement: what is brought toward the LORD rises in fire.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: To go up or ascend.
עָלָה
This verb shares the root of “burnt offering,” making ascent part of the word’s underlying image.
ʿaliyyah: Ascent; going up.
עֲלִיָּה
This noun keeps the root’s upward movement visible alongside the offering that rises.
THE PATTERN
What is brought near becomes an embodied offering, and what is offered rises before God.
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.You send the whole ram up in smoke upon the altar. It is a rising offering to the LORD, a scent that settles, an offering made by fire to the LORD.Therefore I urge you, brothers, through the compassions of God, to set your bodies beside God as a living sacrifice, set apart, well-pleasing to him, which is your true service.THE THREAD
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.The verbs translated “offer” come from קרב (qarab), meaning “draw near,” and the “burnt sacrifice” is עֹלָה (ʿolah), from the root “rise.” Leviticus 1:3 makes the same movements visible: what is brought near is given as an offering that rises.
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