What Does Numbers 5:16 Mean?
And the priest brings her near, and stands her before 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 the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD:THE KEY
The root behind “bring near” also names a ritual offering, giving the priest’s movement the weight of ceremonial approach.
THE MEANING
The priest controls the actions in this line: he brings the woman near and makes her stand before the LORD. Her body is placed within the ritual encounter, while her own voice and choice do not appear in the verse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the assumption that every approach to God begins with the person’s own initiative: here the priest brings the woman near and sets her in place.
THE ROOT
הִקְרִיב
hiq'riv
GROWS FROM
קרב
Approach, draw near, bring close.
“brings her near” in this verse is hiq'riv. The priest’s verb is a causative form of qarab: he causes her to approach. Qorban, an offering, comes from the same root and names something brought near in ritual. The shared seed gives the action a ritual register, while the verse does not call the woman an offering.
ALSO GROWS
qarov: Near, close.
קָרוֹב
This branch keeps the sense of nearness audible in the priest’s act of bringing her before the LORD.
qorban: Offering, something brought near.
קָרְבָּן
This branch shows the ritual dimension carried by the same root, without identifying the woman as an offering.
וְהֶעֱמִדָהּ
ve-he'emidah
GROWS FROM
עמד
Stand, remain, take one’s stand.
“stands her before” in this verse is ve-he'emidah. The verb means that the priest makes her stand. English “set” can sound like simple placement; the Hebrew keeps the bodily posture in view. She is positioned before the LORD by someone else’s action.
ALSO GROWS
omed: Standing; one who stands.
עֹמֵד
This branch makes the posture in the verse explicit: she is made to stand before the LORD.
ma'amad: Standing place, position, station.
מַעֲמָד
This branch carries standing into the idea of a position, illuminating how the priest places her in the ritual scene.
THE PATTERN
Approach to God’s presence takes spatial form: one is brought near or comes before God.
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.Serve the LORD with gladness; come before his face with a ringing cry.Let us draw near with a true heart in the fullness of trust, our hearts sprinkled from a burdened shared sight, and our bodies bathed in clean waters.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.Numbers uses hiqriv from קרב for the priest’s “bring near”; Leviticus 1:3 uses that same root where the KJV says “offer.” Qorban, the word for offering, shares the root, revealing ritual nearness in the verb while leaving the woman’s identity distinct from an offering.
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