What Does Leviticus 3:7 Mean?
If he brings near a lamb as his drawing near, he brings it near before 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
If he offer a lamb for his offering, then shall he offer it before the LORD.THE KEY
The word for “offering” carries the movement of drawing near, so the lamb is both a gift and an approach into the LORD’s presence.
THE MEANING
The word translated “offering” carries the sense of drawing near, while “before” places the lamb in the LORD’s presence. The verse holds the gift and the approach together: what comes forward is set in encounter.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The idea that an offering is only something surrendered misses the nearness already carried in the word.
THE ROOT
קָרְבָּנוֹ
qorbānō
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־ב
q-r-b
to approach or draw near
“drawing near” in this verse is qorbānō. The Hebrew word for “offering” grows from the same root as “approach” and “draw near.” What English presents as an object given also carries the movement of coming close.
ALSO GROWS
qarav: to approach, draw near
קָרַב
The verb makes clear that the offering belongs to a movement toward presence.
qarov: near, close
קָרוֹב
This branch names the nearness toward which the offering moves.
לִפְנֵי
lifnê
GROWS FROM
פנה
p-n-h
to turn toward or face
“Before the LORD” is expressed with a word built around face and facing. The lamb is brought into the LORD’s presence, giving the approach of the offering a relational direction.
ALSO GROWS
panim: face; presence
פָּנִים
This branch gives “before” its face-to-face sense of being in someone’s presence.
panah: to turn, face toward
פָּנָה
This branch echoes the offering’s movement: what is brought is turned toward the LORD.
THE PATTERN
Nearness to God is expressed as an approach carried by both what is brought and the one who draws near.
Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, If anyone of you brings near a drawing near to the LORD, you shall bring near your drawing near from the cattle, from the herd and from the flock.But for me, drawing near to God is good; I have set my shelter in the Lord LORD, to recount all your works.Let us draw near with a true heart in the fullness of trust, our hearts sprinkled from a burdened shared sight, and our bodies bathed in clean waters.THE THREAD
Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, If anyone of you brings near a drawing near to the LORD, you shall bring near your drawing near from the cattle, from the herd and from the flock.Leviticus 1:2 uses the Hebrew root ק־ר־ב (q-r-b, draw near) for both “bring” and “offering.” The verse makes explicit what Leviticus 3:7 holds inside one word: the gift and the approach belong to the same movement.
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