What Does Leviticus 4:34 Mean?
And the priest takes some of the blood of the offering for falling short with his finger, and sets it upon the horns of the altar of the rising offering, and pours out all its blood at the foundation of the altar.
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 shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar:THE KEY
The Hebrew verb for pouring out the offering’s blood is also used for pouring out the heart, joining ritual release and inward release in one image.
THE MEANING
The offering for the missing is brought into contact with the altar: its blood is set on the horns, and the rest is poured at the base. The act runs from the altar’s raised points down to its foundation. Its verb for pouring belongs to the same Hebrew root used for pouring out the heart, so bodily action and inward release share one image.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁפֹּךְ
yishpōkh
GROWS FROM
שׁפך
Pour out, spill, shed.
“pour out” in this verse is yishpōkh. The same root describes pouring out blood and pouring out the heart. Here the remaining blood is fully released at the altar’s base, echoing the language of outpouring elsewhere.
ALSO GROWS
shāphakh dam: Shed blood.
שָׁפַךְ דָּם
The same verb names blood’s release as shedding, sharpening the physical force of the altar action.
shifkhu lefanav levavkhem: Pour out your heart before him.
שִׁפְכוּ לְפָנָיו לְבַבְכֶם
Psalm 62:8 uses this root for inward outpouring, linking the ritual’s physical release with the heart’s release.
חַטָּאת
ḥaṭṭā’t
GROWS FROM
חטא
Miss; miss the mark.
“offering for falling short” in this verse is ḥaṭṭā’t. The offering’s name grows from the root for missing, so it can be heard as an offering for the missing. The verse then shows the missing being handled through blood, placement, and outpouring.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss or incur fault.
חָטָא
This verb shares the root of the offering’s name and keeps the idea of missing within it.
ḥēṭʾ: A missing or fault.
חֵטְא
This noun shows the same root naming what the offering addresses.
וְנָתַן
wenatan
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, place.
“sets” in this verse is wenatan. The priest’s “put” is a form of natan, whose range also includes giving and setting. Linguistically, the blood is placed on the altar as something given to it; Leviticus 17:11 uses this same root when it says the blood is given upon the altar.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: A gift.
מַתָּנָה
A gift is something given, from the same seed as the priest’s act of placing.
nethinim: Those given or assigned for service.
נְתִינִים
This branch preserves the root’s sense of being placed or assigned to a role.
THE PATTERN
Scripture portrays release as a full outpouring, from blood brought to the altar to the heart poured before God.
Lean your full weight upon him at all times, you people; pour out your heart before him. God is our shelter. Selah.You take some of the blood of the young bull, and set it upon the horns of the altar with your finger, and pour out all the blood at the foundation of the altar.And nearly all things are cleansed in blood according to the instruction, and without the pouring out of blood, no release comes.THE THREAD
For the living soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make a covering for your living souls, for it is the blood that covers the living soul.The “put” here and “given” in Leviticus 17:11 translate forms of natan, the root of give, set, and place. That verse names the blood as the flesh’s nefesh, the living soul, so the shared verb presents its placement on the altar as the giving of life-bearing blood.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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