What Does Numbers 29:38 Mean in the King James?

And one goat for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt offering, and his meat offering, and his drink offering.

Numbers 29:38 · 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 offering for what is missing stands beside what continues, so the missing does not become the whole story.

THE MEANING

The verse gives what is missing its own place: one goat is brought as an offering for it, beside the continual burnt offering, with grain and drink offerings also named. The offering for missing appears within a continuing pattern, rather than replacing it.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

A failure must cancel what continues. Here, the offering for missing stands beside the continual offering.

THE ROOT

חַטָּאת

ḥaṭṭāʾt

GROWS FROM

חטא

ḥṭʾ

to miss, err, or go wrong

“sin offering” in this verse is ḥaṭṭāʾt. The same root names both the act of missing and the offering associated with it, a link the English phrase can conceal. Here, that offering has a distinct place beside the continual one.

ALSO GROWS

ḥāṭāʾ: to miss or go wrong

חָטָא

This verb names the act whose root also appears in the word for the offering.

ḥēṭʾ: a missing or fault

חֵטְא

This noun shows the root naming the missing itself, which the offering addresses.

THE PATTERN

What is missing is named and given a place within a recurring pattern of offering.

And one kid of the goats for a sin offering unto the LORD shall be offered, beside the continual burnt offering, and his drink offering.

Numbers 28:15 · KJVAs in the current verse, an offering for missing is placed beside the continual offering.

Or if his sin, wherein he hath sinned, come to his knowledge; he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a male without blemish:

Leviticus 4:23 · KJVThe missing becomes known and receives a specific offering, a kid of the goats.

But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.

Hebrews 10:3 · KJVThe recurring sacrifices keep the missing named within an ongoing ritual pattern.

THE THREAD

Or if his sin, wherein he hath sinned, come to his knowledge; he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a male without blemish:

Leviticus 4:23 · KJV

The phrase “his sin, wherein he hath sinned” carries ⁨חטא⁩ (ḥṭʾ, to miss) twice: first as the missing, then as the act of missing. The goat brought for it makes explicit what Numbers 29:38 compresses into “one goat for a sin offering.”

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