What Does Numbers 15:4 Mean?
And whoever brings his drawing near to the LORD shall bring a gift of a tenth measure of flour mixed with a fourth of a hin of oil.
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
Then shall he that offereth his offering unto the LORD bring a meat offering of a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of oil.THE KEY
The word translated “offering” carries the sense of drawing near, so the flour and oil give approach a measured, tangible form.
THE MEANING
The verse shows approach to the LORD taking a tangible shape: a counted portion of fine flour joined with oil. The offering is measured and mixed, so nearness appears as embodied participation rather than an undefined feeling.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that what is sacred must be detached from matter: grain, oil, quantity, and preparation all belong to this act of nearness.
THE ROOT
קָרְבָּנוֹ
qorbānô
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־ב
q-r-b
to draw near, approach
“drawing near” in this verse is qorbānô. The person who offers and the qorban are both formed from q-r-b: the offerer draws near, and the offering names what comes near with him. The measured flour and oil give that nearness a material shape.
ALSO GROWS
qārab: to approach, draw near
קָרַב
This is the movement carried by the offering: the act is named through nearness.
qārōb: near, close
קָרוֹב
The same root names both the movement toward closeness and the state of being near.
בְּלוּלָה
belulah
GROWS FROM
ב־ל־ל
b-l-l
to mix, mingle; also to confound
The flour is not simply accompanied by oil; the verse describes the two as mixed together. The root also appears in the wordplay on Babel, where mixing becomes confusion, while here mixture gives the offering a composed, prepared form.
ALSO GROWS
bālal: to mix, mingle
בָּלַל
This verb shows that the oil is worked into the flour, making the offering a joined substance.
Babel: Babel; Genesis 11:9 links its name by wordplay with balal, “to confound”
בָּבֶל
The shared root carries mixing from confusion in one passage to purposeful joining in this prepared offering.
THE PATTERN
Approach becomes visible in what is brought near: material gifts and embodied lives alike.
With the one lamb, a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a fourth of a hin of crushed oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine for a poured offering.And now, behold, I have brought the first-ripened fruit of the ground, which you, O LORD, have given me. And you set it down before the LORD your God, and bow down before the LORD your God.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
But for me, drawing near to God is good; I have set my shelter in the Lord LORD, to recount all your works.Numbers calls the gift a qorban, from q-r-b, “to draw near”; Psalm 73:28 uses that same root for “draw near.” It makes explicit what the measured flour and oil embody here: nearness to God is itself named as good.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us