What Does Leviticus 15:30 Mean in the King James?
And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for her before the LORD for the issue of her uncleanness.
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 priest’s act is rooted in “covering,” and the verse applies it to a bodily flow without naming the woman herself as the wrong.
THE MEANING
A bodily discharge can mark ritual uncleanness without making the person a moral failure. The priest’s covering rite restores her standing before the LORD, while the burnt offering carries the image of what rises.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a bodily condition is itself moral guilt or permanent exclusion from God’s presence. It names a rite for her before the LORD, rather than naming her as the wrong.
THE ROOT
כִּפֶּר
kipper
GROWS FROM
כפר
k-p-r
Cover or coat over.
“make an atonement” in this verse is kipper. The root’s covering image sits beneath the KJV’s “atonement”: the priest’s act uses the same root as coating the ark with pitch. Here, that covering is made for her before the LORD in relation to a bodily flow, adding an image of restoration to the ritual.
ALSO GROWS
kaphar: To cover with pitch or coat over.
כָּפַר
In Genesis 6:14, this root describes coating the ark; it reveals the concrete covering image also present beneath “atonement.”
kapporet: The cover of the ark, often rendered “mercy seat.”
כַּפֹּרֶת
This related form carries the same covering root into the place associated with encounter before the LORD.
חַטָּאת
chattat
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
Miss, go wrong, or fail.
“sin offering” in this verse is chattat. This word can name both a wrong or missing and an offering used in purification rites. Here, its ritual role sits beside bodily uncleanness, so the term alone does not say that her flow is a chosen offense.
ALSO GROWS
chata: To miss or do wrong.
חָטָא
The verb shows the root’s connection to missing or going wrong, while this verse uses a related form as the name of an offering.
chet: A missing or wrong.
חֵטְא
This noun shares the root with the offering term, showing how the language holds the missing and its ritual response in the same word family.
זוֹב
zov
GROWS FROM
זוב
z-w-b
Flow, stream, or issue forth.
The root makes “issue” a concrete flow, echoed by the chapter’s description of blood flowing. The verse’s concern is bodily outflow and ritual uncleanness, not an abstract fault.
ALSO GROWS
zav: A person experiencing a discharge.
זָב
Leviticus 15:2 uses this form to name someone by the bodily flow, keeping the root’s meaning physical and specific.
ve-zavah: And she flows; her blood flows.
וְזָבָה
Leviticus 15:25 describes the woman’s blood with this root, tying the “issue” in this verse to a bodily flow.
THE PATTERN
When a bodily flow ends, the text marks a passage from uncleanness or affliction toward restored wholeness.
And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his issue; then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean.And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.THE THREAD
For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.The priest makes atonement with the same Hebrew verb used here, and the verse pairs that act with cleansing before the LORD. This connection opens the covering language into a larger ritual movement from uncleanness toward cleanness in God’s presence.
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