What Does Numbers 28:19 Mean?
But you shall bring near an offering of fire as a rising offering to the LORD; two young bulls, and one ram, and seven lambs of the first year; they shall be unto you whole.
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
But ye shall offer a sacrifice made by fire for a burnt offering unto the LORD; two young bullocks, and one ram, and seven lambs of the first year: they shall be unto you without blemish:THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “offer” means “bring near,” so sacrifice is framed as a movement into nearness.
THE MEANING
The verse gives nearness a concrete shape: what is brought to the LORD is named, counted, and presented whole. The offering is a life brought near, with its completeness visible in the thing offered.
THE ROOT
וְהִקְרַבְתֶּם
wehiqravtem
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
To approach, be near, or bring near.
The verb וְהִקְרַבְתֶּם (wehiqravtem, you shall bring near) makes approach part of the offering itself. Its branches connect sacrifice with nearness, so the verse describes not only what is given but what is brought close.
ALSO GROWS
qorbān: Offering or sacrifice.
קָרְבָּן
The offering shares the root of approach: it is something brought near.
qarov: Near or close.
קָרוֹב
This branch makes explicit the nearness already carried in the verb translated “offer.”
qirvah: Nearness, closeness, or intimacy.
קִרְבָה
It shows how the root of offering also names the state of being near.
עֹלָה
ʿolah
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-l-h
To go up or ascend.
“rising offering” in this verse is ʿolah. The name עֹלָה (ʿolah, burnt offering or that which goes up) carries direction within it. Set beside וְהִקְרַבְתֶּם (wehiqravtem, you shall bring near), it holds two movements together: approach and ascent.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: To go up or rise.
עָלָה
This verb supplies the movement named by the burnt offering.
ʿaliyyāh: Ascent, or an upper room.
עֲלִיָּה
This noun carries the same upward movement into a place or rising.
תְּמִימִם
temimim
GROWS FROM
תמם
t-m-m
To be complete, whole, or finished.
The animals are תְּמִימִם (temimim, whole or complete), the Hebrew behind “without blemish.” The same root can describe a person’s completeness, connecting the offering’s visible wholeness with a whole way of standing before God.
ALSO GROWS
tam: Whole, complete, or sound.
תָּם
This form shows the root’s sense of wholeness in a description of a person or thing.
tom: Integrity, completeness, or wholeness.
תֹּם
This branch carries the root’s wholeness beyond physical condition into integrity.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes approach to God concrete: what is brought near is whole, and offering language reaches the living body.
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, I am God Almighty; walk before my face, and be whole.And whoever brings near a wholeness offering to the LORD to set apart his vow, or a willing offering from the herd or the sheep, it shall be whole to be pleasing; no blemish shall be in it.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
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, I am God Almighty; walk before my face, and be whole.The word translated “perfect” is תָּמִים (tamim, whole or complete), from the same root as תְּמִימִם (temimim, whole or complete) in this verse. The shared root carries the offering’s concrete wholeness into the description of a person’s life before God.
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