What Does Leviticus 26:40 Mean?
If they speak their crookedness into the open, and the crookedness of their fathers, in the breach they made against me, and that they also have walked against me;
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
If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;THE KEY
The same Hebrew root names both their trespass and the act of trespassing, revealing breach of trust as something enacted, not merely labeled.
THE MEANING
Here, your own crookedness and what you inherit from those before you stand together in the open before God. Trespass is named as a breach in relationship, and the contrary walk appears as a continuing direction. Confession brings the whole pattern into speech.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Inherited wrong does not erase present participation, and present participation does not make inherited wrong disappear.
THE ROOT
מַעֲלָם
maʿălām
GROWS FROM
מעל
To act unfaithfully; to breach trust.
The phrase repeats מעל in both the noun for their trespass and the verb for what they did against God. Hebrew binds the breach and the act that enacts it into one relational pattern.
ALSO GROWS
maʿal: To act unfaithfully or treacherously.
מָעַל
This verb is repeated in the verse as מָעֲלוּ (maʿălû), “they trespassed,” making the root audible in both the breach and the action.
meʿilah: A breach of trust; an act of sacrilege or unfaithfulness.
מְעִילָה
It carries the same מ־ע־ל consonants and shows the root’s relational force: the trespass is a violation of trust.
הָלְכוּ
hāləkû
GROWS FROM
הלך
To walk or go.
The Hebrew says they “walked with me in opposition.” This root’s connection to a course or way of proceeding lets the verse present contradiction as a continuing direction, not just a single act.
ALSO GROWS
hālak: To walk or go.
הָלַךְ
This is the root form behind הָלְכוּ, “they walked,” in the verse.
mahalakh: A course, route, or way of proceeding.
מַהֲלָךְ
It shares the root’s ה־ל־ך consonants and illuminates the verse’s image of opposition as a path taken over time.
THE PATTERN
Confession draws concealed and inherited wrongdoing into speech so the breach can be released.
I make my falling short known to you, and my crookedness I do not cover. I say, I will speak my rebellion into the open before the LORD, and you release the crookedness of my falling short. Selah.And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood, and spoke their shortcomings and the crookedness of their fathers into the open.If we speak our shortcomings into the open, he is steady and aligned, to release our shortcomings, and to cleanse us from all crookedness.THE THREAD
I make my falling short known to you, and my crookedness I do not cover. I say, I will speak my rebellion into the open before the LORD, and you release the crookedness of my falling short. Selah.Both verses use forms of ידה (y-d-h) for confessing or acknowledging. Psalm 32:5 joins that acknowledgment to “I have not hid” and ends in release, opening the same movement from concealment that Leviticus names for personal and inherited breach.
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