Whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof shall be holy: and when there is sprinkled of the blood thereof upon any garment, thou shalt wash that whereon it was sprinkled in the holy place.
LEVITICUS 6:27KJVWhat does Leviticus 6:27 mean?
Leviticus 6:27 says that anything touching the flesh of a certain sacrifice becomes holy, and if any of its blood is sprinkled on a garment, that garment must be washed in a holy place. This verse highlights the special, set-apart nature of the sacrificial offerings in Israel’s worship.
In this part of Leviticus, God is giving Moses instructions for the priests about handling sin offerings. The “flesh” refers to the meat of the sacrifice, and the “holy place” is the area of the tabernacle where only priests could go. The verse shows how contact with the sacrifice made things holy and required careful handling, even down to washing clothes that got blood on them.
The Hebrew behind Leviticus 6:27
- “touch” (נָגַע, nagaʿ): This word means to physically touch or come into contact with. Here, it shows that holiness could be transferred by contact, affecting even objects or people that touched the sacrifice.
- “holy” (קָדַשׁ, qadash): This word means to be set apart or consecrated. The verse uses it to show that anything touching the sacrifice was made special and had to be treated differently from ordinary things.
- “sprinkled” (נָזָה, nazah): This word means to scatter or splash, often referring to ritual actions with blood. The act of sprinkling blood on garments made them ritually affected, so they needed special washing.
- “wash” (כָּבַס, kabas): This word means to wash or launder. The command to wash the bloodied garment in the holy place shows the seriousness of keeping ritual purity.
Why Leviticus 6:27 matters
- Leviticus 6:27 clears up that holiness was not just an abstract idea but something that could affect physical objects through contact, which shaped how priests handled sacrifices.
- The verse emphasizes the careful boundaries between holy and ordinary things in Israel’s worship, revealing how seriously God’s instructions were taken.
- This detail connects to the wider passage by showing the practical steps priests had to follow to maintain the sacredness of the tabernacle and its rituals.