What Does Leviticus 7:20 Mean?
But the living soul who eats of the flesh of the slaughter of wholeness offerings, which belong to the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, even that living soul shall be cut off from his people.
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
But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.THE KEY
The peace offering carries wholeness in its name, yet the verse says the eater who carries uncleanness is severed from their people.
THE MEANING
Here, the eater’s condition and belonging are bound together: when uncleanness is upon you as you eat the LORD’s peace offering, you are cut off from your people. The offering’s name carries wholeness, but that name does not dissolve the boundary the verse states.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that eating what belongs to the LORD makes the eater’s uncleanness irrelevant.
THE ROOT
שְׁלָמִים
shelamim
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
To be whole or complete; to make whole.
“wholeness offerings” in this verse is shelamim. English “peace” can sound like a feeling or merely the absence of conflict, but shelamim grows from the language of wholeness and completion. The verse places the eater’s uncleanness beside an offering whose name carries that sense of wholeness, then names the consequence as severance from the people.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness; well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This branch carries the offering’s name beyond quiet or lack of conflict, toward wholeness.
shalem: Whole; complete.
שָׁלֵם
It makes the root’s sense of completeness audible in the name of the offering.
וְנִכְרְתָה
wenikhretah
GROWS FROM
כרת
To cut or sever.
“cut off” in this verse is wenikhretah. The root keeps the image concrete: the person is severed from their people. The same root appears in the expression for cutting a covenant, linking this consequence to a rupture in communal belonging.
ALSO GROWS
karat: To cut; sever.
כָּרַת
This is the verb whose concrete image remains in “cut off.”
karat berit: To cut a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The covenant expression uses the same verb, bringing the verse’s severance into the language of communal bonds.
THE PATTERN
Sacred participation carries a real boundary, and the text ties its consequence to the participant’s condition.
Seven days you will eat unrisen bread. But on the first day you will make the leaven cease from your houses, for whoever eats risen bread from the first day until the seventh day, that living soul will be cut off from Israel.Who climbs the mountain of the LORD? Who stands in his set-apart place? Clean of hands and clear of heart, he who does not lift up his living soul to emptiness, nor swears in deceit.So whoever eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord without its due weight shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.THE THREAD
Faithful love and truth meet; alignment and wholeness kiss.The peace-offering word שְׁלָמִים (shelamim, offerings bearing the sense of wholeness) and Psalm 85:10’s שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) share the root שׁלם (sh-l-m, wholeness). The Psalm shows that wholeness in relation, while Leviticus names the boundary around the person who eats the offering.
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