What Does Leviticus 9:21 Mean?
And the breasts and the right shoulder Aaron waved as a wave offering before the LORD, as Moses commanded.
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
And the breasts and the right shoulder Aaron waved for a wave offering before the LORD; as Moses commanded.THE KEY
The breast is chazeh, linked to seeing, and the wave offering makes the given portion visible before the LORD.
THE MEANING
The breast and right shoulder are presented through a bodily gesture, and Aaron’s motion follows a received command. The offering is made visible before the LORD. The verse speaks now of what is brought into view when it is given to God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that offering is only an inward feeling: here the gift takes bodily form and is visibly presented before the LORD.
THE ROOT
הֵנִיף
henif
GROWS FROM
נוּף
n-w-p
To move to and fro; to wave.
“waved” in this verse is henif. English separates the gesture from the offering’s name, but both come from the same root. The offering is presented through movement, brought into view before the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
henif: Waved or moved to and fro.
הֵנִיף
This is the verb used for Aaron’s action; the offering is made present through a visible gesture.
tenuphah: Wave offering.
תְּנוּפָה
The offering’s name shares the root of the motion, joining what is given with how it is presented.
חָזֶה
chazeh
GROWS FROM
חזה
ḥ-z-h
To see or behold; chazeh names the breast or front of the body.
“breasts” in this verse is chazeh. The Hebrew word for the breast is linked to the root for seeing and beholding. Set alongside the wave offering, this connects the portion brought before the LORD with visibility: what is given is also made seen.
ALSO GROWS
chazah: To see or behold.
חָזָה
This verb shares the root associated with the breast, bringing the language of seeing into the verse’s presentation.
machazeh: Vision.
מַחֲזֶה
This related word names what is seen, echoing the verse’s movement of a portion into view.
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
משה
m-sh-h
To draw out, especially from water.
“Moses” in this verse is Mosheh. The command’s name carries its own nature: Moshe is the one drawn out. The offering’s ordered presentation is thus named through one whose name holds the image of being brought out.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This verb gives the name Moses its meaning of being drawn out of water.
Mosheh: Moses; the drawn-out one.
מֹשֶׁה
The verse identifies the command by a name that carries the nature of being brought out.
THE PATTERN
What is offered to God is brought into visibility through a bodily gesture of presentation.
You set all in the hands of Aaron, and in the hands of his sons, and you wave them for a wave offering before the LORD.His own hands shall bring the offerings of fire to the LORD, the fat upon the breast he shall bring, that the breast may be waved as a waving offering before the LORD.Let my prayer be set before you as smoke, and the lifting of my palms as the evening offering.THE THREAD
His own hands shall bring the offerings of fire to the LORD, the fat upon the breast he shall bring, that the breast may be waved as a waving offering before the LORD.This verse uses the same word family: the breast, chazeh, is waved through the action henif and named as a tenuphah, a wave offering. The shared roots make the presentation a movement that brings the portion into view before the LORD.
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