What Does Leviticus 23:38 Mean?
Apart from the sabbaths of the LORD, and from your givings, and from all your vows, and from all your willing offerings, which you give 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
Beside the sabbaths of the LORD, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give unto the LORD.THE KEY
The repeated “beside” reveals a layered devotion: the LORD’s appointed rhythms stand alongside gifts, vows, and freely chosen offerings.
THE MEANING
The verse holds several forms of devotion side by side: the LORD’s recurring Sabbaths, gifts, vowed commitments, and offerings freely chosen. What is appointed, pledged, and freely offered remains distinct before the LORD.
THE ROOT
מִלְּבַד
millevad
GROWS FROM
בדד
badad
to be separate, alone
The word translated “beside” carries the sense of “apart from” as well as “in addition to.” These forms of devotion keep their distinct places alongside the Sabbaths; they are added together without being collapsed into one act.
ALSO GROWS
levad: alone; apart from
לְבַד
This related form carries the sense of separation beneath “beside,” showing how each kind of devotion remains distinct in the list.
badad: alone; in isolation
בָּדָד
The shared root keeps the focus on distinctness: what stands beside something else can remain its own thing.
מַתְּנוֹת
mattanot
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
to give, set, place
“givings” in this verse is mattanot. The verse names “gifts” and ends with “which ye give” using forms from the same root. The gift itself and the act of giving share one seed: what is placed before the LORD is inseparable from the giving that places it there.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: gift; present
מַתָּנָה
This noun is the singular form behind the verse’s “gifts,” so the gift bears the root of giving in its name.
tittenu: you give; you place
תִּתְּנוּ
This verb is the act named at the end of the verse, linking the listed gifts to the act of giving them.
נִדְבֹתֵיכֶם
nidvoteikhem
GROWS FROM
נדב
nadav
to volunteer, be willing, offer freely
“willing offerings” in this verse is nidvoteikhem. The verse places נִדְבֹתֵיכֶם (nidvoteikhem, “your freewill offerings”) beside נִדְרֵיכֶם (nidreikhem, “your vows”): their opening nun-dalet sounds echo, though their roots differ. The echo holds pledged giving and willing giving together without making them the same.
ALSO GROWS
nedavah: a voluntary gift; a freewill offering
נְדָבָה
This form names the offering that arises from willingness, one distinct mode of giving in the verse.
nadiv: willing; generous; noble
נָדִיב
This related word carries the quality of willingness behind the freewill offering.
THE PATTERN
Worship holds recurring observance and personally chosen giving alongside each other.
These things you do unto the LORD at your appointed meetings, beside your vows and your willing offerings, and for your rising offerings, your gifts, your poured offerings, and your wholeness offerings.Each one shall give according to the gift of his hand, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you.Each one, as his heart has taken hold, so let him give, not from grief or from pressure, for God loves a glad giver.THE THREAD
Each one shall give according to the gift of his hand, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you.Leviticus uses מַתְּנוֹת (mattanot, “gifts”) and תִּתְּנוּ (tittenu, “you give”), both from נתן (natan, “give, set, place”). Deuteronomy uses מַתְּנַת (mattanat, “gift”) for what each person brings and נָתַן (natan, “he gave”) for the blessing already received, placing the human gift inside an earlier gift.
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