What Does Leviticus 4:29 Mean in the King James?
And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt 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
Hebrew names the offering with the same word-family that names the missing and ritual cleansing, holding the problem and its addressing together.
THE MEANING
The verse puts the missing into a visible, costly scene: a hand rests on the offering’s head, and the animal is killed in the designated place. The act by which the missing is addressed has a body and a location.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that the missing is weightless or purely private: here the hand, head, place, and death are all in view.
THE ROOT
חַטָּאת
ḥaṭṭāʾt
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss, err, or go wrong.
In Hebrew, ḥaṭṭāʾt can name both the missing and the offering associated with it; the same consonants also form a verb for cleansing. The phrase “sin offering” carries the missing and ritual purification within one word-family, connections English spreads across separate words.
ALSO GROWS
chata: To miss, err, or sin.
חָטָא
This verb is the root behind the offering’s name, keeping the missing in view.
chatat: The missing; an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
One form names the missing, while another names the offering associated with it.
ḥiṭṭēʾ: To cleanse or purge.
חִטֵּא
The same root also describes ritual cleansing, holding missing and purification within one word-family.
סָמַךְ
samakh
GROWS FROM
סמך
To lean upon or support.
The verb rendered “lay” carries the sense of leaning or supporting. The hand comes to rest upon the offering in a gesture with a shade of contact and reliance beneath the English wording.
ALSO GROWS
samakh: To lean on or support.
סָמַךְ
This is the verb used for placing the hand upon the offering.
samukh: Near or adjacent; supported or joined.
סָמוּךְ
The related word carries the sense of closeness, sharpening the physical nearness in the gesture.
עֹלָה
ʿōlāh
GROWS FROM
עלה
To go up or ascend.
The burnt offering’s Hebrew name carries ascent inside it: an ʿōlāh is what goes up. The offering for the missing is killed in the place associated with the ascending offering, so both rites share a designated location while remaining distinct acts.
ALSO GROWS
ʿalah: To go up or ascend.
עָלָה
This verb is the root of the offering’s name.
ʿōlāh: An ascending offering; burnt offering.
עֹלָה
The word names the offering at whose place the animal is slain.
THE PATTERN
The missing is brought into visible acknowledgment and met through an enacted act of cleansing or release.
And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing: And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD for his sin which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats, for a sin offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin.If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.THE THREAD
And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing:The same Hebrew root that names the offering in Leviticus 4:29 appears as “sinned” here. The next verse joins this confession to an offering, tracing the word-family from naming the missing to addressing it.
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