What Does Numbers 15:10 Mean?
And you shall bring for a poured offering half a hin of wine, for an offering of fire, a scent that settles to the LORD.
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 thou shalt bring for a drink offering half an hin of wine, for an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.THE KEY
The verse turns the gift into movement: wine is poured out and brought near.
THE MEANING
A measured portion of wine is poured out as a drink offering alongside the offering made by fire. The LORD receives this tangible act as a pleasing aroma; pouring and nearness belong together here.
THE ROOT
נֶסֶךְ
nesekh
GROWS FROM
נ־ס־ך
n-s-k
נָסַךְ (nasakh) means to pour out; the root also describes pouring molten material to cast something.
“poured offering” in this verse is nesekh. The English “drink offering” lets you see the wine; the Hebrew root also names the act of pouring it out. The gift is understood through its movement from the vessel into the offering.
ALSO GROWS
nasakh: To pour out or pour a libation
נָסַךְ
This verb makes the action inside the drink offering explicit: the wine is poured.
massekhah: A cast metal image
מַסֵּכָה
This related use also carries the concrete sense of material being poured or cast.
תַּקְרִיב
taqriv
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־ב
q-r-b
קָרַב (qarab) means to approach or draw near.
The verb translated “bring” comes from the root for coming near. Its sibling word qorbān names an offering as something brought near, so the measured wine participates in an act of approach.
ALSO GROWS
qarov: Near or close
קָרוֹב
This familiar branch shows the root’s basic sense of nearness inside the verb “bring.”
qorbān: Offering; something brought near
קָרְבָּן
This branch connects the act of bringing the wine with the offering as an approach.
נִיחֹחַ
nichoach
GROWS FROM
נ־ו־ח
n-w-ḥ
נוּחַ (nuach) means to rest or settle.
“scent that settles” in this verse is nichoach. The word translated “pleasing” carries a root shade of rest or settling. The aroma is described as pleasing, with this quieter resonance beneath the sensory image.
ALSO GROWS
menuchah: Rest or a resting place
מְנוּחָה
This branch makes the root’s sense of rest visible beneath “pleasing.”
manoach: A place of rest or repose
מָנוֹחַ
This related word echoes the settling quality carried by nichoach.
THE PATTERN
A measured gift is poured out alongside an offering, and its reception is described through pleasing fragrance.
And the LORD smelled the fragrance of rest, and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground for man's sake, for the shaping of man's heart is evil from his youth, and I will not again strike down every living thing, as I have done.And the other lamb you offer at evening, and you do with it according to the gift of the morning, and according to its poured offering, for a scent that settles, an offering made by fire to the LORD.But even if I am poured out upon the offering and service of your trust, I rejoice, and rejoice together with you all.THE THREAD
And the LORD smelled the fragrance of rest, and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground for man's sake, for the shaping of man's heart is evil from his youth, and I will not again strike down every living thing, as I have done.The same Hebrew phrase רֵיחַ נִיחֹחַ (re’ach nichoach, a pleasing aroma) appears when the LORD receives Noah’s offering. נִיחֹחַ (nichoach, pleasing or soothing) carries the root shade of נוּחַ (nuach, rest or settling), opening that resonance inside Numbers’ “sweet savour.”
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