What Does Leviticus 7:7 Mean in the King James?
As the sin offering is, so is the trespass offering: there is one law for them: the priest that maketh atonement therewith shall have it.
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
Two names for failure share one instruction, and the priest who performs the covering receives the offering.
THE MEANING
When failure is named as missing or trespass, this verse places both offerings under one instruction. The priest makes the covering, and the offering belongs to the one who performs it; repair, service, and provision meet in one act.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that different names for failure must mean wholly separate paths of repair: the verse names two offerings, then places them under one instruction.
THE ROOT
יְכַפֶּר
yekhapper
GROWS FROM
כפר
To cover, or cover over.
The verb יְכַפֶּר (yekhapper, he covers) names the priest’s act. Its root keeps the image of covering inside “atonement,” and the verse makes that covering concrete: the priest who enacts it receives the offering.
ALSO GROWS
kapporet: The cover of the ark, also called the mercy seat.
כַּפֹּרֶת
This related form preserves the image of a covering made tangible.
kopher: A ransom or covering price.
כֹּפֶר
This branch brings covering near to the bearing of liability.
תּוֹרָה
torah
GROWS FROM
ירה
To direct, point, or instruct.
The “one law” is תּוֹרָה (torah, instruction): both offerings fall under one governing direction. Its root family carries the sense of directing or teaching, so the unity here is shared guidance through distinct offerings.
ALSO GROWS
yarah: To direct, point, or teach.
יָרָה
The verb carries the directing sense that underlies the shared instruction.
moreh: An instructor or teacher.
מוֹרֶה
This related word shows the root’s movement from direction to instruction.
חַטָּאת
chatta’t
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss or fail to reach.
“sin offering” in this verse is chatta’t. The offering’s name keeps the experience of missing visible beneath the English label. It remains distinct from אָשָׁם (asham, trespass or guilt offering), yet both are held under תּוֹרָה (torah, instruction).
ALSO GROWS
chet: Missing or failure.
חֵטְא
This noun makes the root’s sense of missing explicit.
chote: One who misses or errs; a sinner.
חוֹטֵא
The person-word shows the same root describing the one who misses.
THE PATTERN
The one who serves at the altar receives a portion from what is offered there.
And the priest that offereth any man’s burnt offering, even the priest shall have to himself the skin of the burnt offering which he hath offered.And this shall be the priest’s due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep; and they shall give unto the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw.Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?THE THREAD
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.This verse uses יְכַפֶּר (yekhapper, he covers) for the priest’s act, the same root found in Leviticus 7:7. Here the priest covers the person concerning the missing; Leviticus 7:7 adds that the offering belongs to the priest who performs that covering.
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