What Does Leviticus 14:53 Mean in the King James?
But he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open fields, and make an atonement for the house: and it shall be clean.
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 house is declared clean through two linked acts: a living bird is sent beyond the city, and covering is made over the house.
THE MEANING
The verse joins release and covering in one act of cleansing: the living bird moves into open space while the house is covered and becomes clean. Life is sent outward, and the dwelling is sheltered.
THE ROOT
שִׁלַּח
shillach from shalach
GROWS FROM
שלח
send forth, send away, release
The verb translated “let go” also means to send forth: release is movement out from a place. Here the living bird’s departure is part of the house becoming clean, so cleansing is pictured with an outward release.
ALSO GROWS
shaliach: one sent; an envoy or messenger
שָׁלִיחַ
The sent one carries the movement of shalach: someone is released from one place to go forth on behalf of another.
Shiloach: sent forth; the name associated with the waters of Siloam
שִׁלֹחַ
The same sending root appears in the name of flowing waters; in John 9, the pool is where sight is restored.
וְכִפֶּר
wəḵipper
GROWS FROM
כפר
cover, cover over
The Hebrew verb translated “make an atonement” carries the sense of covering. That covering stands beside shalach, “send away”: the house is called clean as the living bird is released and covering is made over the dwelling.
ALSO GROWS
kappōret: the cover of the Ark, traditionally rendered “mercy seat”
כַּפֹּרֶת
The same root names a literal covering; here it adds a concrete layer to the house’s cleansing.
kōpher: a ransom or covering price
כֹּפֶר
The root’s covering sense extends to a price that covers a claim, linking protection from liability with covering over a place.
THE PATTERN
Cleansing is pictured through release: what burdens or marks a place is sent away, and the place can be called clean.
And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.THE THREAD
And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.The same root, שלח (shalach), names the release of the goat into the wilderness. Here a living bird and there a goat bearing iniquities are sent beyond the inhabited place, making release a visible part of cleansing.
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