What Does Leviticus 6:29 Mean?
All the males among the priests shall eat of it. It is most set apart.
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
All the males among the priests shall eat thereof: it is most holy.THE KEY
The most holy is not kept outside the body here: it is eaten, and its holiness remains.
THE MEANING
The verse holds reception and boundary together: the priests eat what remains named most holy. What is set apart can enter the body without becoming common.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that what is sacred must stay untouched and at a distance; here, the most holy thing is eaten.
THE ROOT
קֹדֶשׁ קָדָשִׁים
qōdeš qodāšîm
GROWS FROM
ק־ד־שׁ
q-d-sh
set apart, mark as sacred
“most set apart” in this verse is qōdeš qodāšîm. The repeated set-apart word forms a superlative: “holy of holies.” Here that highest designation belongs to food the priests eat, showing that what is set apart can be received bodily without losing its sacred boundary.
ALSO GROWS
qādôš: set apart; sacred
קָדוֹשׁ
It names the quality carried by the food even as the priests eat it.
miqdāš: sanctuary; a set-apart place
מִקְדָּשׁ
This branch connects holiness with a place marked for sacred use, echoing the verse’s boundary around who eats.
יֹאכַל
yōḵal
GROWS FROM
א־כ־ל
ʾ-k-l
eat, consume
“eat” in this verse is yōḵal. The root family names both the act of eating and what is eaten. The verse therefore joins holiness to actual bodily reception, while still preserving the food’s set-apart status.
ALSO GROWS
ʾōḵel: food
אֹכֶל
This branch names what the priests receive through the act in the verse.
maʾăḵāl: food; something to eat
מַאֲכָל
It makes visible the root’s link between consuming and the thing consumed.
THE PATTERN
What is set apart can be received through embodied participation while its boundary remains meaningful.
They eat those things wherewith the covering was made, to fill their hands and to set them apart. But a stranger does not eat of it, because they are set apart.O taste and see that the LORD is good. Flourishing is the strong one who takes shelter in him.The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.THE THREAD
Every male among the priests shall eat of it. It shall be eaten in the set-apart place. It is most set apart.The same root ק־ד־שׁ (q-d-sh, set apart) names both the holy place and the food called most holy. This verse makes clear that eating happens within the space marked as sacred, joining bodily reception to the boundary that holds it.
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