What Does Exodus 30:10 Mean in the King James?
And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the LORD.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Even the altar called most holy receives an annual covering enacted in blood.
THE MEANING
You see the altar’s horns receive blood once each year, while the verse calls the altar most holy to the LORD. Here, being set apart stands alongside a recurring covering tied to the people’s missing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being set apart means being beyond the need for covering; this verse applies the yearly rite even to what it calls most holy.
THE ROOT
כִּפֶּר
kipper
GROWS FROM
כפר
k-p-r
Cover; make a covering.
English “atonement” can sound like an abstract result, while this Hebrew root keeps a covering action in view: blood is applied to the altar’s horns. The verse uses a noun from the same root for the annual rite, tying the altar’s covering to the word that names it.
ALSO GROWS
kippurim: Coverings; atonements.
כִּפֻּרִים
The verse’s phrase “of atonements” comes from this same root, linking the annual rite to the act of covering.
kapporet: Cover; the ark’s cover, often rendered “mercy seat.”
כַּפֹּרֶת
The same root names the cover above the ark, carrying the language of covering into another central place in the sanctuary.
חַטָּאת
ḥaṭṭā’t
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
Miss, err, or fail; in this phrase, the offering associated with the missing.
“sin offering” in this verse is ḥaṭṭā’t. Chatat can name both missing and the offering brought in relation to it. The phrase keeps the offering connected to the breach it addresses rather than naming a blood rite detached from the people’s missing.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēṭ: Fault, sin, or missing.
חֵטְא
This noun from the same root names the condition associated with the offering.
ḥāṭā’: To miss, err, or do wrong.
חָטָא
The verbal branch connects the offering’s name to an act or condition of missing.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents covering as an enacted response to missing, from a sanctuary altar to a person’s transgression.
And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the LORD, and make an atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about. And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.A Psalm of David, Maschil. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.THE THREAD
And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the LORD, and make an atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about.The verb translated “make an atonement” comes from כפר (k-p-r), the same covering root traced here, and the blood is placed directly on the altar’s horns. Leviticus makes the compressed word visible as an action upon the very altar Exodus calls most holy.
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