What Does Leviticus 4:24 Mean in the King James?
And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the goat, and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering before the LORD: it is a sin offering.
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 verse joins the missing and its offering in one word-family, then gives that missing a body in the goat that dies before the LORD.
THE MEANING
The verse puts wrongdoing before you in bodily form: a hand rests on the goat, and the animal is killed before the LORD as the offering for the missing. Its cost is not left abstract; it appears in a body and in the LORD’s sight.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that wrongdoing is weightless or purely inward: here, the missing appears with bodily cost before the LORD.
THE ROOT
חַטָּאת
ḥaṭṭāʾt
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss, miss a mark, or do wrong.
Both the act of missing and the named sin offering grow from חטא (ḥṭʾ, ḥāṭāʾ, “to miss”). The verse keeps wrongdoing and the rite that addresses it in one word-family; the goat’s death gives that missing a bodily, visible form.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss; to do wrong or sin.
חָטָא
Judges 20:16 uses this verb for a sling stone that does not miss, making the concrete target sense visible.
ḥēṭʾ: A missing, sin, or offense.
חֵטְא
This noun names the failure the offering addresses, joining the act of missing to the rite named for it.
וְסָמַךְ
wə-sāmakh
GROWS FROM
סמך
To lean on, support, or rest upon.
“lay his hand” in this verse is wə-sāmakh. The verb at the goat’s head carries the sense of leaning or supporting. The hand makes the relation physical before the animal is killed, placing contact at the center of the offering.
ALSO GROWS
sōmēkh: One who supports or sustains.
סוֹמֵךְ
Psalm 145:14 uses this form for the LORD who supports those who fall, echoing the root’s sense of support.
semikhah: Laying on or resting a hand upon.
סְמִיכָה
This related word keeps the physical sense of the act: a hand placed in contact, rather than a distant gesture.
THE PATTERN
The missing is brought into view and met with a concrete act of release.
And he shall burn all his fat upon the altar, as the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings: and the priest shall make an atonement for him as concerning his sin, and it shall be forgiven him.He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.THE THREAD
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.Psalm 32:5 names the speaker’s wrong חַטָּאתִי (ḥaṭṭāʾtî, “my sin”), built on the same root חטא (ḥṭʾ, ḥāṭāʾ, “to miss”) that names this offering. Leviticus gives the missing a body in the goat; the psalm brings it into speech and describes its release.
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