The Hebrew verb zabach means to slaughter an animal for sacrifice, to offer upon an altar, or to kill for a sacred meal. It appears over 130 times in the Old Testament and is the primary word for sacrificial worship, encompassing both the act of killing and the accompanying presentation to God.
Zabach sits at the heart of Israel's covenant worship. Every sacrifice pointed forward to Christ, the ultimate sacrifice whose blood purchased eternal redemption (Hebrews 10:12). The repeated sacrifices of Israel's ritual system underscored humanity's need for atonement and kept alive the expectation of a final, sufficient offering. In the New Testament, believers are called to offer spiritual sacrifices (Romans 12:1) — lives given wholly to God as living altars of worship.