What Does Numbers 28:3 Mean?
And you shall say to them, This is the offering of fire that you shall bring near to the LORD; two whole lambs of the first year, day by day, for an unbroken ascending offering.
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 say unto them, This is the offering made by fire which ye shall offer unto the LORD; two lambs of the first year without spot day by day, for a continual burnt offering.THE KEY
The daily offering is both a drawing near and an ascent: what is brought whole is named by its rising.
THE MEANING
The verse gives a daily form to what is brought before the LORD: two first-year lambs, without spot, offered by fire as a continual burnt offering. Its words hold together bringing near, wholeness, and rising.
THE ROOT
תַּקְרִיבוּ
taqrîvû
GROWS FROM
קרב
Approach, come near; in this verb form, bring near.
“bring near” in this verse is taqrîvû. The verb translated “offer” carries the sense of bringing near. Its branches connect an offering with nearness, so the act is framed as approach as well as presentation.
ALSO GROWS
qorbān: Offering; a drawing near.
קָרְבָּן
The noun for an offering comes from the same root, making the offering an act of approach.
qārōḇ: Near, close.
קָרוֹב
This branch makes the root’s nearness plain: to offer is to bring something close.
עֹלָה
ʿōlāh
GROWS FROM
עלה
Go up, ascend.
“ascending offering” in this verse is ʿōlāh. The name of the burnt offering is also the word for an ascent. The verse holds fire and rising together in the name of what is offered.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: To go up, ascend.
עָלָה
This verb is the root’s basic movement and reveals the image inside “burnt offering.”
maʿălāh: Ascent, upward step.
מַעֲלָה
This noun preserves the upward movement carried by the offering’s name.
תְּמִימִם
temimim
GROWS FROM
תמם
Be complete, whole, intact.
The condition rendered “without spot” comes from a root of completeness. The lamb is described as whole and unblemished, so wholeness belongs to the offering’s stated form.
ALSO GROWS
tām: Whole, complete, blameless.
תָּם
This branch shows the root’s sense of completeness behind the lamb’s condition.
tōm: Integrity, completeness.
תֹּם
This noun carries the same idea of wholeness into the description of integrity.
THE PATTERN
Scripture carries offering as a recurring rhythm that can take the form of daily sacrifice, prayer, or embodied life.
This is what you offer on the altar. Two lambs of a year, day by day continually.Let my prayer be set before you as smoke, and the lifting of my palms as the evening offering.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
If his drawing near from the herd is a rising offering, he shall bring near a whole male to the opening of the tent of appointed meeting, and he shall bring it near of his own pleasure before the face of the LORD.Leviticus names the burnt offering עֹלָה (ʿōlāh, ascent) and the unblemished animal תָּמִים (tāmîm, whole), echoing the roots in Numbers. Its קָרְבָּנוֹ (qorbānô, his offering; drawing near) shares the root behind “shall offer,” bringing nearness, rising, and wholeness together.
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