What Does Leviticus 4:16 Mean?
And the anointed priest brings some of the blood of the young bull into the tent of meeting.
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 the priest that is anointed shall bring of the bullock’s blood to the tabernacle of the congregation:THE KEY
The blood is carried to a place whose Hebrew name means appointed meeting, so its destination is encounter.
THE MEANING
The priest marked by oil brings the bull’s blood into the tent named for meeting. The cost of communal rupture becomes material and enters the appointed encounter with God.
THE ROOT
מוֹעֵד
mo’ed
GROWS FROM
יעד
To appoint, designate, or set a meeting.
The Hebrew phrase is ohel mo’ed, the tent of meeting or appointed encounter. The same word family connects appointed times with the gathered assembly, so the destination is named by encounter, not merely by its building.
ALSO GROWS
ʿedah: Assembly or congregation.
עֵדָה
The gathered people echo the appointed meeting held in this place.
mo’adim: Appointed times or festivals.
מוֹעֲדִים
The same root names set times of encounter, linking the tent to an appointed meeting.
וְהֵבִיא
vehevi
GROWS FROM
בוא
To come or enter; in the causative form, to cause to come or bring.
“bring” in this verse is vehevi. The Hebrew form makes the priest cause the blood to come into the tent. The movement into the place of meeting is part of the verse’s meaning.
ALSO GROWS
bo: To come or enter.
בּוֹא
The blood is made to arrive inside the appointed place of encounter.
mavo: Entrance or entry.
מָבוֹא
The same root can name an entrance, keeping the act of bringing tied to crossing into a place.
הַמָּשִׁיחַ
hamashiach
GROWS FROM
משח
To smear or apply oil; to anoint.
“anointed” in this verse is hamashiach. The priest is identified by the action of anointing, which leaves oil upon him. The root keeps his role embodied as he carries the blood toward the meeting place.
ALSO GROWS
mashach: To smear or anoint with oil.
מָשַׁח
The verb names the action that marks this priest before he carries the blood.
mishchah: Anointing or anointing oil.
מִשְׁחָה
The related noun makes the oil itself part of the same word family.
THE PATTERN
Encounter with God becomes concrete as what bears communal consequence is brought into the appointed holy space.
This is a continual rising offering throughout your generations, at the opening of the tent of meeting before the LORD, where I will meet you, to speak with you there.Not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered once into the set-apart places, having found a ransom for the ages.THE THREAD
This is a continual rising offering throughout your generations, at the opening of the tent of meeting before the LORD, where I will meet you, to speak with you there.Both verses use mo’ed, meaning an appointed meeting or encounter. Exodus names this as the place where the LORD meets and speaks, opening the destination of Leviticus 4:16 as a place of encounter.
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