What Does Leviticus 6:9 Mean?
Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the instruction of the rising offering. It is the rising, on its burning place upon the altar, all the night until morning, and the fire of the altar shall burn in it.
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
Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering: It is the burnt offering, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it.THE KEY
The burnt offering is named as an ascent, and that ascent continues in the fire through the night until morning.
THE MEANING
You encounter the offering as an ascent that remains in the fire through the night until morning. The verse holds both movements together: the offering burns upon the altar, and the altar’s fire continues.
THE ROOT
עֹלָה
ʿōlāh
GROWS FROM
עלה
To go up, rise, or ascend.
“rising offering” in this verse is ʿōlāh. The Hebrew word adds the image of upward movement to the burnt offering. Its name does not remove the fire, the verse describes the offering burning all night, but holds rising and consuming in one image.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: To go up or ascend.
עָלָה
This verb shares the offering’s root and makes its upward movement audible in the word itself.
ʿaliyyāh: An ascent; also an upper room.
עֲלִיָּה
This related word uses the same root for an ascent, showing that עֹלָה carries more than the English phrase “burnt offering” alone.
תּוּקַד
tûqad
GROWS FROM
יקד
To kindle or burn.
The verse sets מוֹקְדָה (mōqedāh, “hearth”) beside תּוּקַד (tûqad, “shall burn”): the place of fire and the act of burning share the root יקד. Hebrew lets the hearth and its continuing flame echo one another.
ALSO GROWS
mōqedāh: Hearth or place of burning.
מוֹקְדָה
This word appears earlier in the verse for the place where the offering burns, sharing its root with the fire that continues through the night.
mōqēd: A burning place or flame.
מֹקֵד
This related form keeps the same root’s image of fire as an ongoing force.
THE PATTERN
An offering can be a continuing act, sustained beyond the moment it is placed before God.
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.Let my prayer be set before you as smoke, and the lifting of my palms as the evening offering.And another messenger comes and stands at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense is given to him, so that he might give it with the prayers of all the set-apart ones upon the golden altar before the face of the throne.THE THREAD
And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and sent up rising offerings on the altar.In Hebrew, “offered” and “burnt offerings” in this verse share the root עלה (ʿalah), meaning “to ascend.” Leviticus names the offering עֹלָה (ʿōlāh), so the upward motion is present in its name even as it burns on the altar.
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