What Does Leviticus 14:31 Mean?
Even as his hand can reach, the one for the offering for falling short, and the other for the rising offering, with the gift; and the priest shall make a covering for the one being cleansed before the face of the LORD.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Even such as he is able to get, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, with the meat offering: and the priest shall make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed before the LORD.THE KEY
The offering is measured by what the person’s hand can reach, while the priest’s act of covering opens a way to cleansing before the LORD.
THE MEANING
The reader’s limited means do not place cleansing beyond reach: what the hand can attain is brought, and the priest makes covering for the one being cleansed before the LORD. The offering for the missing, the burnt offering, and the grain gift stand together in this passage toward cleanness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that cleansing is available only to someone who can bring more than they have.
THE ROOT
וְכִפֶּר
ve-kipper
GROWS FROM
כפר
To cover.
The priest’s act is named with the root for covering, while the verse also calls the person one being cleansed. The pairing holds covering and cleansing together in the movement back into the LORD’s presence.
ALSO GROWS
kippurim: Atonements; coverings.
כִּפֻּרִים
The plural form keeps atonement connected to the root’s image of covering.
kapporet: Covering; the cover of the ark.
כַּפֹּרֶת
This branch makes the covering image concrete and links it with the place associated with divine presence.
תַּשִּׂיג
tassig
GROWS FROM
נשׂג
To reach, attain, or overtake.
“able to get” in this verse is tassig. The Hebrew pictures what the person’s hand can reach. Capacity is built into the wording: the offering corresponds to what is actually attainable.
ALSO GROWS
hissig: To reach or attain.
הִשִּׂיג
It shares the verse’s sense of bringing only what can be reached.
hasagah: Attainment; grasp.
הַשָּׂגָה
This noun carries the same idea of what lies within someone’s reach or grasp.
חַטָּאת
chatta’t
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss; to miss the mark.
“offering for falling short” in this verse is chatta’t. The offering’s name shares a root with the word for missing the mark; the missing and the offering for it belong to one word family. Here that offering is part of a route to cleansing shaped around what the person can bring.
ALSO GROWS
chata: To miss; to miss the mark.
חָטָא
This verb shows the action carried in the root behind the offering’s name.
chet: A missing; an offense.
חֵטְא
This noun keeps the idea of missing visible within the same root family.
THE PATTERN
An offering is measured against the giver’s actual means, so limited capacity does not remove the person’s place in the passage.
And if he is low, and his hand cannot reach so much, then he shall take one lamb for a guilt offering to be waved, to make a covering for him, and one tenth of an ephah of fine flour kneaded with oil for a gift, and a log of oil.But if his hand does not reach two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, then he who misses the mark brings as his drawing near the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour as an offering for falling short; he sets no oil upon it, neither does he set any white resin upon it, for it is an offering for it.For all these cast in from their overflow into the gifts of God, but she, from her lack, cast in all her living that she had.THE THREAD
For on that day the priest makes a covering for you, to cleanse you, so that you may be clean from all your shortcomings before the LORD.Both verses use כפר (kaphar, covering) for the priest’s act and place cleansing before the LORD. Leviticus 16:30 makes the sequence explicit: covering and cleansing meet in the return to presence.
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