What Does Hebrews 9:7 Mean?

But into the second, once a year, goes the high priest alone, not without blood, which he brings near for himself and for the unknowing missings of the people.

Hebrews 9:7 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:

THE KEY

The verse names the people’s failures as acts of not knowing, yet still brings them into the offering.

THE MEANING

The way into the innermost place is solitary and never without blood. The offering includes both the priest and the people’s errors, naming those errors as a failure of knowing rather than simply as rebellion.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that an unwitting failure is therefore weightless is unsettled here: the verse names what the people do not know and still places it within the offering.

THE ROOT

ἀγνοημάτων

agnoēmatōn

GROWS FROM

⁨γνο-⁩/⁨γνω-⁩ (gnō-)

know, perceive

The word for the people’s “errors” belongs to the same family as knowing: it names what happens through not knowing. The verse holds that lack of perception in view rather than treating it as invisible.

ALSO GROWS

agnoeō: to be unaware, not to know

ἀγνοέω

This verb shows the not-knowing contained in the word for the people’s errors.

gnōsis: knowledge, knowing

γνῶσις

This is the knowing side of the same root family, making the contrast within “errors” visible.

προσφέρει

prospherei

GROWS FROM

φερ-

pher-

carry, bear

The verb translated “offered” also means to bring toward or present. The blood is something carried into the solitary approach, so the verse describes an act of bringing as well as an offering.

ALSO GROWS

pherō: to carry, bear, bring

φέρω

This is the base verb inside “offered,” revealing the carrying sense beneath the English word.

prosphora: offering, presentation

προσφορά

This related noun names what is brought forward, clarifying the movement implied by the verb.

THE PATTERN

Failure born in unknowing is still named and placed within mediation and covering.

And Aaron brings near his bullock, the offering for falling short, which is for himself, and makes a covering for himself and for his house, and slaughters the bullock.

Leviticus 16:11 · SDVThe priest’s own condition is included in the offering, as the high priest’s is in Hebrews 9:7.

And the priest shall make a covering for all the assembly of the children of Israel, and it shall be released to them, for it is straying. And they shall bring their drawing near, an offering of fire to the LORD, and their offering for falling short before the LORD, for their straying.

Numbers 15:25 · SDVThe passage names the congregation’s failure as ignorance and places it within an offering and forgiveness.

Then Jesus said, Father, release them, for they do not know what they are doing. And they parted his garments, and cast lots.

Luke 23:34 · SDVNot knowing is named directly, while forgiveness is sought for those acting without understanding.

THE THREAD

Who can bear gently with the unknowing and with those who wander, since he himself is also encircled by weakness.

Hebrews 5:2 · SDV

Hebrews 5:2 uses the same knowing-root in “ignorant” (⁨ἀγνοοῦσιν⁩, agnoousin) and says the mediator can meet such people with compassion because he too is surrounded by weakness. That connection makes the errors here part of shared human frailty, while the offering also includes the priest himself.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us