What Does Proverbs 21:27 Mean?
The slain offering of the wicked is a recoiling thing; how much more when he brings it with a scheme.
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
The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind?THE KEY
An offering does not cleanse the intent behind it; it reveals what that intent is.
THE MEANING
A sacred-looking act cannot make a crooked intention whole. When you bring an offering while carrying a wicked design, the verse calls the act detestable; when that design is deliberate, the contradiction cuts deeper.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a devotional act can cover or cancel a deliberately harmful intent.
THE ROOT
זֶבַח
zevach
GROWS FROM
זבח
z-b-ḥ
To slaughter; to sacrifice or offer.
“slain offering” in this verse is zevach. The root keeps the sacrifice tied to a concrete act of offering, rather than letting it become an abstract religious gesture. Its connection to the altar makes the place and act part of one word-family: what is brought there still carries the nature of the one bringing it.
ALSO GROWS
zāvaḥ: To slaughter or sacrifice.
זָבַח
The verb shows that the noun names an act, with a bringer and something brought.
mizbēaḥ: Altar, the place of sacrifice.
מִזְבֵּחַ
Its name comes from the same root, linking the altar to the act performed there.
בְּזִמָּה
b'zimmah
GROWS FROM
זמם
z-m-m
To devise or plan.
The Hebrew phrase points to a devised scheme, not merely a passing bad mood. The verse says the offering is detestable already, and more so when it is brought with a wicked plan behind it.
ALSO GROWS
zāmam: To devise or plan.
זָמַם
The verb emphasizes intention formed into a plan, sharpening the verse’s focus on what lies behind the offering.
zimmah: A plan or scheme, often wicked.
זִמָּה
This noun is the form used in the verse; it makes the added wrong deliberate rather than accidental.
THE PATTERN
A sacred offering cannot hide an intention or way of life that contradicts the devotion it performs.
And Samuel said, Does the LORD delight in rising offerings and slaughtered offerings as much as in hearing and responding to the voice of the LORD? Behold, hearing and responding is better than a slaughtered offering; to prick the ear is better than the fat of rams.He has shown you, O human, what is good. And what does the LORD seek from you, but to do justice, and to hold fast to faithful love, and to walk low with your God?And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the living soul, and with all the strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is more than all the whole-burned offerings and sacrifices.THE THREAD
The slaughtered offerings of God are a broken breath; a broken and crushed heart, O God, you do not despise.“Sacrifices” here is זִבְחֵי (zivḥê, sacrifices), from זבח (z-b-ḥ, to slaughter or offer), the same root as “sacrifice” in Proverbs. The shared root opens a contrast: one offering carries a wicked scheme, while the other names a broken and contrite heart.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us