What Does Leviticus 6:21 Mean?
In a pan it shall be made with oil, and when it is baked, you shall bring it in. The broken pieces of the gift you shall bring near for a scent that settles to 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
In a pan it shall be made with oil; and when it is baken, thou shalt bring it in: and the baken pieces of the meat offering shalt thou offer for a sweet savour unto the LORD.THE KEY
The “sweet savour” is an aroma associated with settling rest, so the offering’s approach to the LORD ends in an image of reception.
THE MEANING
The verse presents nearness through a prepared, material gift: oil and heat shape the food, and its pieces are brought before the LORD. Its aroma is called נִיחֹחַ (nichoach, a soothing or pleasing aroma), connecting the act of drawing near with an image of rest.
THE ROOT
תַּקְרִיב
taqriv
GROWS FROM
קרב
qarav
To come near or approach; in a causative form, to bring near.
The verb תַּקְרִיב (taqriv, bring near or offer) comes from קרב (qarav, approach or draw near). English “offer” can sound like handing something away, while this root shows the action as bringing the prepared food into nearness; קָרְבָּן (qorban, offering) carries the same connection in its noun form.
ALSO GROWS
qarov: Near, close.
קָרוֹב
This everyday word keeps the root’s sense of nearness visible in the act of offering.
qorban: Offering, something brought near.
קָרְבָּן
The offering is named as what is brought near, illuminating the verse’s presentation of the food to the LORD.
hiqriv: To bring near; to offer.
הִקְרִיב
This verb shares the root’s sense of approach and names the act of presenting an offering.
נִיחֹחַ
nichoach
GROWS FROM
נוח
nuach
To settle, rest, or come to rest.
“a scent that settles” in this verse is nichoach. In רֵיחַ נִיחֹחַ (re’ach nichoach, a soothing or pleasing aroma), the word translated “savour” is associated with נוח (nuach, to settle or rest). The image carries more than sweetness: the aroma expresses a settling quality in the offering received by the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
menuchah: Rest, resting place.
מְנוּחָה
This noun preserves the root’s sense of settled rest and clarifies the soothing shade in “savour.”
yanuach: He will rest; he will settle.
יָנוּחַ
The verb form makes the movement into rest explicit, echoing the settling quality of the aroma.
heniach: To set down, cause to rest.
הֵנִיחַ
This form shows the root’s sense of bringing something to rest, deepening the image of the prepared gift reaching its place before the LORD.
THE PATTERN
An offering brought before the LORD is pictured as a pleasing aroma.
And the LORD smelled the fragrance of rest, and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground for man's sake, for the shaping of man's heart is evil from his youth, and I will not again strike down every living thing, as I have done.You send the whole ram up in smoke upon the altar. It is a rising offering to the LORD, a scent that settles, an offering made by fire to the LORD.And walk in love, as the Anointed One also loved us and handed himself over for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, a fragrance that settles sweetly.THE THREAD
And the LORD smelled the fragrance of rest, and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground for man's sake, for the shaping of man's heart is evil from his youth, and I will not again strike down every living thing, as I have done.Genesis uses the same רֵיחַ נִיחֹחַ (re’ach nichoach, soothing or pleasing aroma) phrase for an offering received by the LORD. That shared wording lets נִיחֹחַ (nichoach, a settling aroma) open this verse’s image of the offering’s nearness arriving in rest.
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