What Does Leviticus 5:17 Mean in the King James?
And if a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the LORD; though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity.
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 calls it a miss, yet says an unrecognized miss still has weight.
THE MEANING
A failure can be real before you recognize it; not knowing does not undo what the act sets in motion. The verse names that weight as liability carried by the person who did not know.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that ignorance makes an act consequence-free: not knowing does not erase the liability the verse names.
THE ROOT
תֶחֱטָא
teḥeṭāʾ
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss, fail, or fall short of the mark.
The Hebrew word belongs to a family whose seed is missing the mark; that same family names the חַטָּאת (ḥaṭṭāʾt), an offering associated with the missing. The verse’s word for sin can therefore hold failure without implying that the person recognized it as defiance.
ALSO GROWS
ḥōṭēʾ: One who misses or sins.
חוֹטֵא
The person in the verse belongs to the same word family as the act: the miss describes what happened, whether or not it was known.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: A missing; also an offering associated with the missing, often rendered “sin offering.”
חַטָּאת
This branch shows that the language of missing also names a way the wrong is addressed.
וְנָשָׂא
wenāśāʾ
GROWS FROM
נשא
To lift, carry, or bear.
“bear” in this verse is wenāśāʾ. The verse makes the consequence something carried. The same Hebrew verb נָשָׂא (nāśāʾ, “lift or carry”) can also describe lifting guilt away in another phrase, so burden and release sit within one root, though here the clause says the person bears the burden.
ALSO GROWS
nōśēʾ ʿāwōn: Bearing or forgiving guilt; literally, carrying guilt.
נֹשֵׂא עָוֹן
This phrase uses the same verb found in the verse, revealing that its English rendering “bear” belongs to a wider sense of taking guilt up or away.
nāśîʾ: A leader or prince; one raised up.
נָשִׂיא
This related form carries the sense of being lifted up, another branch of the root’s movement of lifting.
וְאָשֵׁם
weʾāšēm
GROWS FROM
אשם
To incur guilt or liability.
“guilty” in this verse is weʾāšēm. The verse moves from the miss to a state of liability: not knowing does not erase what the act has brought about. This word family also names a reparation offering, linking guilt with the handling of the wrong.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāšām: Guilt or liability; also a reparation offering.
אָשָׁם
The same root names both the condition the verse describes and an offering associated with addressing that condition.
ʾašmāh: Guilt or culpability.
אַשְׁמָה
This form keeps the verse’s focus on liability within the same consonantal family.
THE PATTERN
A wrong does not become unreal because it is unseen, though knowledge may shape its measure.
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them:If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.THE THREAD
Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.The Hebrew verb נָשָׂא (nāśāʾ, “lift or carry”) appears with עָוֹן (ʿāwōn, “guilt”) in both verses; here the KJV says “bear,” while Exodus renders the same verb “forgiving.” The shared phrase shows that carrying guilt and lifting it away can be expressed through the same root, though this verse names the burden the person bears.
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