What Does Numbers 15:7 Mean?

And for the poured offering you shall offer a third of a hin of wine, for a scent that settles to the LORD.

Numbers 15:7 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And for a drink offering thou shalt offer the third part of an hin of wine, for a sweet savour unto the LORD.

THE KEY

The word behind “sweet” grows from the root for rest, so this wine offering is pictured as an aroma that settles before the LORD.

THE MEANING

A third of an hin of wine is specified for the drink offering; approach takes a measured, material form. Its aroma is named with a word tied to settling and rest, so what comes near is pictured as soothing before the LORD.

THE ROOT

נִיחֹחַ

nîḥōaḥ

GROWS FROM

נוח

n-w-ḥ

To rest, settle, or come to rest.

“scent that settles” in this verse is nîḥōaḥ. The word translated “sweet” carries the sense of soothing or settling. English leaves that rest beneath the phrase “sweet savour,” while the Hebrew joins the aroma to the language of coming to rest.

ALSO GROWS

nûaḥ: To rest or settle.

נוּחַ

This verb makes the root’s sense of settling audible beneath the offering’s aroma.

menûḥāh: Rest or a resting place.

מְנוּחָה

This branch gives rest a tangible form, echoing the settling quality carried by “sweet.”

תַּקְרִיב

taqrîb

GROWS FROM

קרב

q-r-b

To approach or come near.

The verb translated “offer” is built from the language of nearness. The wine is brought near to the LORD, and its aroma carries the accompanying image of rest.

ALSO GROWS

qorbān: An offering; something brought near.

קָרְבָּן

This related word makes explicit the approach already present in the verb “offer.”

qārōb: Near or close.

קָרוֹב

The same root links the act of offering with nearness to the LORD.

THE PATTERN

When an offering is brought near, Scripture pictures its reception as an aroma that pleases the LORD.

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.

Genesis 8:21 · SDVThe aroma follows Noah’s offering, and the verse joins its reception to the LORD’s resolve toward the ground and its living creatures.

And its inward parts and its legs he shall wash in water, and the priest shall send all of it up in smoke upon the altar, a rising offering, an offering of fire, a fragrance that settles to the LORD.

Leviticus 1:9 · SDVThe burnt offering is described with the same language of a pleasing aroma before the LORD.

And walk in love, as the Anointed One also loved us and handed himself over for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, a fragrance that settles sweetly.

Ephesians 5:2 · SDVA self-giving offering is again pictured as a sweet-smelling savour received by God.

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.

Genesis 8:21 · SDV

The phrase ⁨רֵיחַ נִיחֹחַ⁩ (rēaḥ nîḥōaḥ, “aroma of soothing rest”) appears for Noah’s offering too. Its shared word for “sweet” belongs to ⁨נוח⁩ (n-w-ḥ), the root of resting and settling, opening the drink offering’s aroma as a received, settling fragrance.

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