What Does Leviticus 4:10 Mean?
As they are lifted from the ox of the sacrifice of wholeness, and the priest sends them up in smoke upon the altar of the rising offering.
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
As it was taken off from the bullock of the sacrifice of peace offerings: and the priest shall burn them upon the altar of the burnt offering.THE KEY
The rite for what is missing takes its pattern from the shelamim (שְׁלָמִים, shelamim: wholeness offerings), whose root carries the idea of wholeness.
THE MEANING
The portion removed from the bull is handled according to the same pattern as the offering named for wholeness. The priest gives that portion to the altar, where it is made into smoke.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that the handling of what is missing belongs outside the pattern of wholeness.
THE ROOT
הַשְּׁלָמִים
ha-shelamim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete; to make whole or repay.
“peace offerings” in this verse is ha-shelamim. Shelamim grows from the same root as shalom, wholeness. The verse says the portion lifted from this bull follows the handling of a shelamim bull: the rite for what is missing is measured against the language and practice of wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being
שָׁלוֹם
The shared root shows that the word translated “peace” also carries the sense of wholeness.
shalem: Whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This adjective makes the root’s sense of completeness visible in a related form.
shillem: Repay, make restitution
שִׁלֵּם
The same root can describe restoring what is due, linking wholeness with repair.
וְהִקְטִיר
vehiqṭir
GROWS FROM
קטר
q-ṭ-r
To make smoke; to offer incense or burn an offering into smoke.
“sends them up in smoke” in this verse is vehiqṭir. The verb translated “burn” belongs to the same root family as incense. English hides that connection: the priest’s act is expressed as making smoke for the altar.
ALSO GROWS
qetoret: Incense
קְטֹרֶת
The shared root links the offering’s smoke with incense.
qitor: Smoke, vapor
קִיטוֹר
This related form makes explicit the smoke-making sense within the verse’s verb.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness becomes the measure for treating what is missing and divided.
And he sends all its fat up in smoke upon the altar, like the fat of the sacrifice of wholeness, and the priest makes a covering for him concerning his falling short, and it is released to him.For by one offering he has made complete without break those being set apart.For he is our wholeness, the one who made both one and loosed the middle wall of the fence.THE THREAD
And he brings near from the wholeness offering a gift of fire to the LORD; the fat that covers the entrails, and all the fat upon the entrails.Leviticus 3 names the inward fat within the shelamim (שְׁלָמִים, shelamim: wholeness offerings). Its name comes from שלם (sh-l-m: to be whole), making clear why Leviticus 4 uses this offering as the measure for the portion removed from the bull.
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