What Does Leviticus 7:29 Mean?
Speak to the children of Israel, saying, He who brings near the slaughters of his wholeness offerings to the LORD shall bring his drawing near to the LORD from them.
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
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, He that offereth the sacrifice of his peace offerings unto the LORD shall bring his oblation unto the LORD of the sacrifice of his peace offerings.THE KEY
Here, an offering is an approach, and the peace offering carries wholeness into that approach.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks of wholeness as something carried into presence: the one who draws near brings an offering to the LORD. Approach and gift belong together, so wholeness takes concrete form in what is brought.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that drawing near is only inward: here, nearness takes shape in what the person brings.
THE ROOT
הַמַּקְרִיב
hammaqriv
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
To approach or draw near.
“He who brings near the slaughters” in this verse is hammaqriv. The Hebrew uses this root for both the one who offers and the oblation. What English presents as a person and an object share an approach-root: the offering is the concrete form of coming near.
ALSO GROWS
qārab: Approach; draw near.
קָרַב
This verb reveals the movement inside the act of offering.
qorbān: Offering; that which is brought near.
קָרְבָּן
The offering itself carries the language of approach.
qārōv: Near; close.
קָרוֹב
This branch shows the same root naming nearness as a state as well as a movement.
שְׁלָמָיו
shelamav
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or sound.
“his wholeness offerings” in this verse is shelamav. The name of the peace offering carries the root of wholeness. Beside the offering-root of approach, it joins wholeness with nearness to the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness; well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This familiar word shares the root carried by the peace offering.
shalem: Whole; complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the root’s sense of completeness explicit.
THE PATTERN
What is brought before God takes concrete form as an offering.
If his drawing near is a wholeness offering from the herd, male or female, he brings it near whole before the LORD.I offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and in the nature of the LORD I call.Therefore I urge you, brothers, through the compassions of God, to set your bodies beside God as a living sacrifice, set apart, well-pleasing to him, which is your true service.THE THREAD
Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, If anyone of you brings near a drawing near to the LORD, you shall bring near your drawing near from the cattle, from the herd and from the flock.The same Hebrew root, קרב (q-r-b, approach or draw near), shapes “bring an offering” here and “oblation” in Leviticus 7:29. The text treats the offering as an enacted approach, joined to the one who brings it.
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