What Does Leviticus 16:30 Mean in the King James?

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.

Leviticus 16:30 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The covering reaches every miss, so you stand clean before the LORD.

THE MEANING

The covering reaches all that leaves you unclean, and its cleansing brings you into the LORD’s presence clean. The verse leaves no part of your missing outside the word “all.”

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that some part of your missing is too deep to be cleansed before the LORD.

THE ROOT

יְכַפֵּר

yekhappēr

GROWS FROM

כפר

cover; covering

The word translated “atonement” grows from ⁨כפר⁩, “cover.” Here, that covering is tied directly to cleansing: it reaches every missing, and you stand clean before the LORD.

ALSO GROWS

kappōret: covering; mercy seat

כַּפֹּרֶת

This name for the ark’s cover carries the same root image of covering into the sacred place.

kōfer: pitch; covering

כֹּפֶר

The word for the pitch that covers the ark’s wood keeps the root’s concrete image visible.

לְטַהֵר

letahēr

GROWS FROM

טהר

be clean; be pure

“cleanse / clean” in this verse is letahēr. The verse uses the same root for the act of cleansing and the resulting state of being clean. Hebrew holds the clearing and the cleanness together as one movement.

ALSO GROWS

ṭāhōr: clean; pure

טָהוֹר

This is the state the verse says follows the cleansing.

ṭohŏrāh: cleanness; purity

טָהֳרָה

The noun keeps the same root visible as a condition of being clean.

חַטֹּאתֵיכֶם

ḥaṭṭōtêkhem

GROWS FROM

חטא

miss; miss the mark

The word for “sins” grows from ⁨חטא⁩, “to miss.” The verse says the covering and cleansing reach every miss, with none left outside “all.”

ALSO GROWS

ḥāṭāʾ: miss; commit a sin

חָטָא

This verb shows the root beneath the plural “sins” in the verse.

ḥaṭṭāʾt: missing; sin; offering for the missing

חַטָּאת

This related form names both the missing and an offering associated with its cleansing.

THE PATTERN

What covers and cleanses the missing leaves no stain beyond its reach.

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Psalm 103:12 · KJVThe removal extends as far as the verse’s image can reach, echoing the completeness of “all your sins.”

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Isaiah 1:18 · KJVThe stain of the missing gives way to cleanness, just as this verse moves from atonement to being clean.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

1 John 1:7 · KJVThe cleansing reaches “all sin,” carrying forward the same promise of nothing left outside its reach.

THE THREAD

For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.

Leviticus 17:11 · KJV

The same ⁨כפר⁩ root appears here: covering is made through blood, and the verse names the blood as the life of the flesh. That makes the cleansing in Leviticus 16:30 concrete: the covering is bound to life given at the altar.

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