What Does Numbers 28:30 Mean in the King James?

And one kid of the goats, to make an atonement for you.

Numbers 28:30 · KJV

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 word translated “atonement” is kaphar, “covering”: the verse pictures a covering made for you through one goat.

THE MEANING

You are the one for whom covering is made, and its appointed form here is a single goat. The verse gives that covering a concrete shape: it is enacted for you.

THE ROOT

לְכַפֵּר

lekhapper

GROWS FROM

כפר

to cover, or cover over

The Hebrew verb holds the image of covering inside what English renders “atonement.” Its branches preserve that physical image and also connect the root with a ransom given on another’s behalf.

ALSO GROWS

kopher: A coating used to cover

כֹּפֶר

In Genesis 6:14, a verb from this root describes coating the ark inside and out, making the covering image tangible.

kopher: A ransom or price given for someone

כֹּפֶר

In Exodus 21:30, the same root names a payment made on someone’s behalf, adding the sense of something given to cover a liability.

THE PATTERN

The root kaphar links atonement with covering, from a coating placed over a surface to an act made for a person.

Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.

Genesis 6:14 · KJVThe word translated “pitch it” comes from kaphar, the same root behind “atonement” here, and describes covering the ark with a coating.

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.

Leviticus 16:30 · KJVThe same root names an act of covering for you and links it in the verse with cleansing.

Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

Hebrews 2:17 · KJVThe verse presents the high priest’s work as reconciliation for the people’s sins, carrying the pattern of an atoning act into the New Testament.

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.

Leviticus 16:30 · KJV

Leviticus uses the same root ⁨כפר⁩ (kaphar, “cover”) as Numbers 28:30. It names cleansing alongside the covering made for you, opening up what this single goat’s appointed act means in the verse.

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