What Does Leviticus 7:13 Mean?
Besides the cakes, he shall bring near for his offering leavened bread with the slaughter of the open hand of his wholeness offerings.
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
Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings.THE KEY
The offering for wholeness explicitly includes leavened bread, so fermentation itself is not excluded from thanksgiving.
THE MEANING
The verse makes gratitude tangible: thanksgiving takes the form of an offering named within an offering of wholeness. It includes leavened bread alongside the cakes, so this expression of thanks takes more than one form.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Leavened bread is inherently unfit for an offering to God. This verse explicitly includes it in the thanksgiving offering.
THE ROOT
תּוֹדָה
todah
GROWS FROM
ידה
y-d-h
Acknowledge, praise, or give thanks.
“slaughter of the open hand” in this verse is todah. Todah names both thanksgiving and the concrete thanksgiving offering in this verse. The root keeps gratitude connected to acknowledgment that is expressed, rather than leaving it as a private mood.
ALSO GROWS
yadah: Acknowledge, give thanks, praise.
יָדָה
This verb shares the root of todah and shows thanksgiving as an act of recognition.
Yehudah: Judah, a name associated with praise.
יְהוּדָה
Genesis 29:35 connects Leah naming Judah with her words, “Now will I praise the LORD,” echoing the root behind todah.
שְׁלָמִים
shelamim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
Be whole or complete; make good or repay.
“wholeness offerings” in this verse is shelamim. The root of shelamim includes being whole, completing, and making good. This lets “peace offerings” carry a sense of fullness here, with thanksgiving held within the vocabulary of wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Peace, wholeness.
שָׁלוֹם
It shares the root of shelamim and brings the language of wholeness into the offering.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This adjective makes the root’s sense of completeness audible in the name of the offering.
shillem: Pay, repay, make good.
שִׁלֵּם
This related verb appears in Psalm 50:14, where thanksgiving is paired with paying one’s vows.
חָמֵץ
chametz
GROWS FROM
חמץ
ḥ-m-ṣ
Ferment, become sour, be leavened.
“leavened” in this verse is chametz. Chametz names food that has undergone fermentation, distinct from the cakes named in the surrounding offering instructions. Its presence here is explicit within the thanksgiving offering: the verse lets fermentation belong to this expression of thanks.
ALSO GROWS
chametz: Leavened or fermented food.
חָמֵץ
This is the word describing the bread included with the thanksgiving offering.
chomets: Vinegar or sour wine.
חֹמֶץ
This related form, used in Numbers 6:3, reflects the same root’s association with fermentation and sourness.
THE PATTERN
Thanksgiving is made concrete in an offering and voiced as praise.
And let them slaughter the sacrifices of extended hands, and recount his works with rejoicing.But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of open-handed thanks; what I have vowed, I will make whole. Deliverance belongs to the LORD.Through him, then, let us always carry up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.THE THREAD
Offer to God thanksgiving, and make whole your vows to the Most High.Psalm 50:14 uses תּוֹדָה (todah, thanksgiving), the same word found here, and pairs it with שַׁלֵּם (shallem, pay or make good), from שלם, the root of shelamim. The thanksgiving and wholeness vocabulary of this offering meet again in a verse that joins giving thanks with making good a vow.
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