What Does Leviticus 5:19 Mean in the King James?
It is a trespass offering: he hath certainly trespassed against the LORD.
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 Hebrew names both the offering and the offense with the same root, then repeats the verb for emphasis: the offering does not hide the guilt it names.
THE MEANING
This verse puts wrongdoing in clear view: this is a guilt offering, and the offense is truly against the LORD. The word-family holds the liability and the offering together, naming the response without softening what it addresses.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that renaming wrongdoing as a harmless mistake makes it cease to be a real liability before God.
THE ROOT
אָשָׁם
ʾāšām
GROWS FROM
אשם
ʾ-sh-m
To be guilty; to incur liability.
“trespass offering / trespassed” in this verse is ʾāšām. The noun for the guilt offering and the emphatic verb translated “hath certainly trespassed” share אשם (ʾ-sh-m), meaning to incur guilt or liability. The offering bears the same name as the liability it addresses, while the repeated verb makes the charge unmistakable.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāshēm: Guilty; liable.
אָשֵׁם
This form names the state of bearing liability, making the verse’s word-family describe more than a single act.
ʾashmāh: Guilt; culpability.
אַשְׁמָה
This related noun names the condition itself, showing how the same root can speak of both guilt and the offering associated with it.
THE PATTERN
The text names liability plainly and places a response beside it.
Likewise this is the law of the trespass offering: it is most holy.Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.THE THREAD
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.Isaiah uses אָשָׁם (ʾāshām), meaning a guilt offering, the same word that names the offering in this verse. That shared root makes “offering for sin” more specific: the offering carries the name of the guilt it addresses.
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