What Does Leviticus 9:24 Mean?
And a fire came out from before the LORD, and ate upon the altar the rising offering and the fat; and when all the people saw it, they shouted, and fell on their faces.
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 there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.THE KEY
The altar fire is said to eat the offering, giving its consuming a meal-like depth.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s presence becomes visible as fire consuming what is on the altar. The people answer with a shout and faces lowered to the ground: awe fills both voice and posture.
THE ROOT
וַתֹּאכַל
vattokhal
GROWS FROM
אכל
to eat, consume
“ate” in this verse is vattokhal. The verb carries the plain sense “eat”; the same root can name both the eater and the food. That gives the fire’s action a meal-like image, where what is placed on the altar is taken in.
ALSO GROWS
okhel: eater; one who eats
אֹכֵל
The same root names the one performing the act, making the fire’s consumption vivid and active.
ma'akhal: food; something eaten
מַאֲכָל
This branch names what is eaten, giving the offering another layer as food taken up by the altar fire.
וַיָּרֹנּוּ
vayyaronnu
GROWS FROM
רנן
to ring out; cry aloud or sing joyfully
“shouted” in this verse is vayyaronnu. The people’s response belongs to a family of jubilant cries and songs. Together with their faces falling to the ground, the verse gives their recognition both a sound and a posture.
ALSO GROWS
rinnah: joyful shout; ringing cry or song
רִנָּה
This noun carries the ringing quality of the people’s cry when the fire appears.
ronen: singing or shouting joyfully
רֹנֵן
This form keeps the response active and vocal, rather than reducing it to silent recognition.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s presence is portrayed as consuming fire, made visible in what the fire takes in.
Then the fire of the LORD fell, and ate the rising offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the waters that were in the trench.For our God is a fire that devours.THE THREAD
And what remains of it Aaron and his sons shall eat. With unleavened bread it shall be eaten in the set-apart place. In the court of the tent of meeting they shall eat it.The word translated “consumed” here comes from אכל (akal), the same root translated “eat” in this verse. One offering is eaten by altar fire; another is eaten by the priests in the holy place, linking the altar’s consumption to the language of food.
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