What Does Ezekiel 43:20 Mean in the King James?
And thou shalt take of the blood thereof, and put it on the four horns of it, and on the four corners of the settle, and upon the border round about: thus shalt thou cleanse and purge it.
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
The altar’s cleansing reaches every edge, while its Hebrew verbs join the language of missing with the act of covering.
THE MEANING
Here the whole place of approach stands before you: blood reaches the horns, corners, and surrounding border. The verse names this work with verbs rooted in missing and covering, holding both within one act of cleansing.
THE ROOT
וְחִטֵּאתָ
veḥiṭṭēʾtā
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥṭʾ
To miss, err, or commit an offense.
The verb translated “cleanse” shares its root with חֵטְא (ḥeṭʾ, “missing or offense”) and חַטָּאת (ḥaṭṭāʾt, “offense; purification offering”), keeping the act of cleansing connected to the missing it addresses. The next verb comes from כפר (kaphar, “cover”), bringing covering into the same act.
ALSO GROWS
ḥeṭʾ: Missing; offense
חֵטְא
This noun names the same miss whose word-family supplies the verse’s verb for cleansing.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Offense; purification offering
חַטָּאת
The offering’s name keeps the missing and the ritual that addresses it in one word-family.
וְכִפַּרְתָּ
vekhippartā
GROWS FROM
כפר
kaphar
To cover or cover over.
The verb translated “purge” comes from כפר (kaphar, “cover”), so covering is present within the altar’s cleansing. כַּפֹּרֶת (kappōret, “the ark-cover”) carries the same root into a concrete sanctuary object.
ALSO GROWS
kippūr: Atonement; covering
כִּפּוּר
The ritual word for atonement carries the root’s covering sense into the work described here.
kappōret: The cover of the ark; the mercy seat
כַּפֹּרֶת
The sanctuary’s ark-cover makes the root’s idea of covering concrete within the same sacred space.
THE PATTERN
Cleansing reaches a place of approach when blood is carried to its horns, corners, and boundary.
And he slew it; and Moses took the blood, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about with his finger, and purified the altar, and poured the blood at the bottom of the altar, and sanctified it, to make reconciliation upon it.And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.THE THREAD
And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.The same two roots converge here: חטא (ḥṭʾ, “missing or offense”) appears in “thy sin,” and כפר (kaphar, “cover”) is behind “purged.” In Ezekiel the blood reaches the altar’s boundaries; here the coal touches the lips, and the missing is covered.
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