What Does 2 Chronicles 29:23 Mean?
And they brought out the male goats for the offering for falling short before the king and the assembly, and they leaned their hands upon them.
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 they brought forth the he goats for the sin offering before the king and the congregation; and they laid their hands upon them:THE KEY
The offering for what is missing is brought into shared, bodily contact before the king and the whole congregation.
THE MEANING
The missing is brought into the open before the king and the whole congregation. Their hands rest on the offering, making the encounter bodily and shared rather than hidden or abstract.
THE ROOT
חַטָּאת
chatta't
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss, fail, or go wrong.
“offering for falling short” in this verse is chatta't. The offering’s Hebrew name comes from the same root as the verb “to miss.” The word keeps the missing and the offering connected, while the verse brings that missing before the king and congregation.
ALSO GROWS
chata: To miss or fail.
חָטָא
This verb shares the seed of the offering’s name, linking the act of missing with what is brought forward here.
chet: A missing or failure.
חֵטְא
This noun makes visible the same root idea carried in “sin offering”: the missing is named and brought into the open.
וַיִּסְמְכוּ
vayyismekhu
GROWS FROM
סמך
s-m-k
To lean or rest upon; to support or uphold.
“leaned their hands” in this verse is vayyismekhu. The verb for laying hands comes from a root of leaning and support. The same root describes being upheld, so the gesture carries more than touch: it suggests resting upon or supporting what stands beneath the hands.
ALSO GROWS
somekh: Supporting or upholding.
סוֹמֵךְ
Psalm 37:24 uses this form for the LORD upholding someone who falls, revealing the support held within this root.
semikhah: Laying on of hands; ordination or appointment.
סְמִיכָה
This related word preserves the root’s connection between hands resting upon someone and a recognized act of support or setting in place.
THE PATTERN
A hand laid on another body gives visible form to a relation of offering, naming, or imparting.
And he leans his hand upon the head of the young goat, and slaughters it in the place where the rising offering is slaughtered before the LORD. It is the offering for falling short.And Aaron leans both his hands upon the head of the living goat, and speaks into the open over him all the crookedness of the children of Israel, and all their rebellions, in all their shortcomings, setting them upon the head of the goat, and sends him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness.Then they laid their hands on them, and they took hold of the Set-Apart Breath.THE THREAD
Though he falls, he will not be hurled down, for the LORD props him up with his hand.The Hebrew verb translated “laid” here comes from סמך, the root behind “upholdeth” in this verse. The same root joins hands resting on the offering with the LORD’s hand supporting one who falls.
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