What Does Ezra 6:17 Mean?
And they offered at the dedication of this house of God a hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs; and as an offering for the falling short of all Israel, twelve he-goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.
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 offered at the dedication of this house of God an hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs; and for a sin offering for all Israel, twelve he goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.THE KEY
The offering for what is missing is counted across all twelve tribes, so the whole people stands inside the dedication.
THE MEANING
The dedication of God’s house includes a costly, visible offering and names all Israel in its count. The offering for what is missing is shared across the people, with twelve goats corresponding to the twelve tribes. The animals keep the act materially real and concrete.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
What is missing belongs only to someone else or to a fragment of the people. Here the offering is named for all Israel and counted tribe by tribe.
THE ROOT
חַטָּאָה
ḥaṭṭāʾāh
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss, go astray, or fail.
“offering for the falling short” in this verse is ḥaṭṭāʾāh. The Aramaic word here names a sin offering, while its root also names missing or going astray. That shared root lets the offering carry what is missing into the dedication of the whole people, while the verse keeps the sacrifice itself in view.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss or go astray.
חָטָא
This verb shows the root’s movement beneath the offering: something has gone wrong or missed its mark.
ḥēṭʾ: A miss, failure, or sin.
חֵטְא
This noun shares the same root and connects the offering with the condition it addresses.
ḥaṭṭāʾāh: Sin offering; an offering for what is missing.
חַטָּאָה
This is the word used for the twelve goats offered for all Israel.
וְהַקְרִיבוּ
wəhaqərîbû
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
To approach or bring near.
The verb translated “offered” comes from the root of approaching or bringing near. Alongside the offering for what is missing, it holds two movements together: what has gone astray is acknowledged, and the people bring their costly gifts near to dedicate the house.
ALSO GROWS
qərab: To approach or come near.
קְרַב
This Aramaic cognate reveals the motion within the act of offering: bringing something near.
qorbān: An offering, something brought near.
קָרְבָּן
The related noun makes the connection between an offering and approach explicit.
THE PATTERN
Renewal gathers a community by naming its members together, even when they are scattered or divided.
And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar beneath the mountain, and twelve standing stones, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD came, saying, Israel, the one who wrestles with God, shall be your name.And not for that nation only, but that he would also gather together into one the children of God who were scattered abroad.THE THREAD
And if the whole assembly of Israel misses the mark through straying, and the word is hidden from the eyes of the assembly, and they do against one of the commandments of the LORD, concerning the things which ought not to be done, and they are guilty;Ezra’s Aramaic ḥaṭṭāʾāh (חַטָּאָה, sin offering) and Leviticus’ Hebrew ḥāṭāʾ (חָטָא, to miss or go astray) share the root חטא. Leviticus names the whole congregation in connection with that same root, opening Ezra’s twelve goats as an offering for the shared missing of all Israel.
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