What Does Numbers 7:13 Mean?
And his offering was one silver dish of the weight of a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver sprinkling bowl of seventy shekels, after the set-apart shekel, both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a gift.
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 his offering was one silver charger, the weight thereof was an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them were full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering:THE KEY
The word for offering carries the sense of drawing near, so every weighed vessel and prepared ingredient gives approach a material form.
THE MEANING
This verse places nearness in tangible things: the silver has weight, while the flour and oil fill the vessels. The offering is not abstract; its name describes what is brought near.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the assumption that drawing near is only inward or intangible; here, approach also takes the form of weighed, prepared material.
THE ROOT
קָרְבָּנוֹ
qorbano
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־ב
To approach or draw near; in a causative form, to bring near.
The Hebrew word for this offering is formed from the language of approach: it is what is brought near. That root gives the measured silver and flour mingled with oil a second dimension, the offering is both substance and movement toward closeness.
ALSO GROWS
qarav: Approach; come near.
קָרַב
The verb makes visible the movement held inside the word for offering.
hiqრივ: Bring near; present or offer.
הִקְרִיב
This causative form names the act of bringing something close, linking the gift to the offering’s root.
qarov: Near; close.
קָרוֹב
This related form describes the closeness toward which the offering’s movement points.
THE PATTERN
Approach is expressed through concrete offerings, whether material gifts or spoken praise.
And Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock, and of their fat. And the LORD gazed upon Abel and upon his offering.And when a living soul brings near a gift to the LORD, his drawing near is of fine flour; he pours oil upon it and sets frankincense upon it.Through him, then, let us always carry up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.THE THREAD
But you say, If a man says to his father or his mother, Corban, whatever help from me you might have had, he is free.Mark preserves the same Hebrew offering-word, קָרְבָּן (qorbān, a gift brought near), in the form κορβᾶν (korban, a gift dedicated to God). Its use exposes a tension: a thing named as given to God can be invoked to withhold help from a parent.
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