What Does Leviticus 9:7 Mean in the King James?
And Moses said unto Aaron, Go unto the altar, and offer thy sin offering, and thy burnt offering, and make an atonement for thyself, and for the people: and offer the offering of the people, and make an atonement for them; as the LORD commanded.
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
Even the priest who stands at the altar needs the same covering as the people.
THE MEANING
Moses, the one drawn out, speaks a command in which the priest’s missing is named beside the people’s. Covering is made for both, and the people’s offering is brought near. The verse speaks now as a shared condition: service does not place anyone beyond the need for covering.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the person who serves others has no missing of their own: Aaron’s need is named alongside the people’s.
THE ROOT
וְכִפֶּר
ve-khipper
GROWS FROM
כפר
kaphar
cover, make a covering
The verb translated “make an atonement” carries the sense of covering. It is repeated for Aaron and for the people, so the priest who performs the rite stands within the same need as the community.
ALSO GROWS
kōfer: ransom or covering price
כֹּפֶר
This branch shows covering as something given to answer for a life or a debt.
kippurim: atonements, coverings
כִּפֻּרִים
The plural form carries the same covering language into the named rites of atonement.
קָרְבָּן
qorbān
GROWS FROM
קרב
qarav
approach, draw near
The people’s offering is a qorbān, from the same root as the command to approach the altar. English makes “offering” sound like an object alone; the Hebrew also carries the movement of drawing near.
ALSO GROWS
qerav: come near, approach
קְרַב
This is the command to go toward the altar, sharing its root with the people’s offering.
qarov: near
קָרוֹב
This branch keeps the nearness inside the word family that names the offering.
חַטָּאת
chatta’t
GROWS FROM
חטא
chata
miss, go wrong
“sin offering” in this verse is chatta’t. The same Hebrew word can name both the missing and the offering brought for it. The phrase holds a failure and its ritual response together, where English can make “sin” sound like an abstraction separate from the offering.
ALSO GROWS
chata: miss, offend
חָטָא
This verb names the missing that the offering addresses.
chet: a missing, fault, or offense
חֵטְא
This noun keeps the idea of missing within the same root family as the offering.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents covering for missing as a concrete act that extends from the priest to the people.
For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.And the priest shall make an atonement for all the congregation of the children of Israel, and it shall be forgiven them; for it is ignorance: and they shall bring their offering, a sacrifice made by fire unto the LORD, and their sin offering before the LORD, for their ignorance:And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.THE THREAD
For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.The Hebrew verb כִּפֶּר (khipper, “covers” or “makes atonement”) appears for Aaron and for the people; Leviticus 16:30 uses the same כפר (kaphar, “cover”) root and names cleansing as its result. The connection shows one act of covering extending from the priest to the whole people.
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