What Does Leviticus 4:14 Mean in the King James?
When the sin, which they have sinned against it, is known, then the congregation shall offer a young bullock for the sin, and bring him before the tabernacle of the congregation.
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 same Hebrew word names both the congregation’s missing and the offering it brings, holding failure and response in one root.
THE MEANING
When the congregation’s missing becomes known, the whole assembly brings a young bullock before the meeting tent. Recognition receives a concrete, communal response: the offering belongs to the congregation, not only to the person who notices the failure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A community’s failure belongs only to the person who first discovers it.
THE ROOT
חַטָּאת
ḥaṭṭāʾt
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥāṭāʾ
To miss, err, or go wrong.
“sin” in this verse is ḥaṭṭāʾt. The Hebrew noun חַטָּאת appears for what the congregation has done and again in the phrase describing what the bull is offered for. Context lets this same word name both the missing and an offering for the missing, linguistically joining the failure to its communal response.
ALSO GROWS
chata: To miss, err, or sin.
חָטָא
This verb names the act beneath the noun in the verse: the congregation has missed the mark.
chattat: Missing; an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
The verse uses this word for both the known failure and the offering brought in response.
נוֹדְעָה
noda'ah
GROWS FROM
ידע
yādaʿ
To know or perceive; in this form, to become known.
“is known” in this verse is noda'ah. The verse turns on the moment the missing becomes known to the congregation. The same root names knowing and knowledge, making recognition the hinge between a hidden failure and a shared response.
ALSO GROWS
yada: To know or perceive.
יָדַע
The verse uses this root in a form that says the congregation’s missing comes to be known.
da'at: Knowledge or understanding.
דַּעַת
This related noun names the knowledge reached when what was hidden becomes recognized.
THE PATTERN
When shared failure comes into view, scripture treats it as the community’s matter and gives it a communal response.
Then it shall be, if ought be committed by ignorance without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one young bullock for a burnt offering, for a sweet savour unto the LORD, with his meat offering, and his drink offering, according to the manner, and one kid of the goats for a sin offering.Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.THE THREAD
And if the whole congregation of Israel sin through ignorance, and the thing be hid from the eyes of the assembly, and they have done somewhat against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which should not be done, and are guilty;The preceding verse describes the congregation’s missing as hidden from its own eyes; this verse begins when that missing becomes known. Both forms grow from חטא (ḥāṭāʾ), linking the unseen act to the recognized one the congregation now brings into view.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us