What Does Leviticus 15:15 Mean?
And the priest shall make one of them as an offering for falling short, and the other a rising offering, and the priest shall make a covering for him before the face of the LORD for his flow.
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
And the priest shall offer them, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the LORD for his issue.THE KEY
Here atonement meets a bodily flow, carrying the image of a covering that holds an exposed condition within the sacred order.
THE MEANING
This verse names a bodily discharge directly and brings it within the sacred order through offering and priestly covering before the LORD. The offering rendered “sin offering” addresses a ritual condition; it does not by itself accuse the person of chosen wrongdoing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A bodily discharge is itself proof of moral guilt or that the person is beyond the LORD’s presence.
THE ROOT
וְכִפֶּר
ve-khipper
GROWS FROM
כפר
covering
“make a covering” in this verse is ve-khipper. The root כפר (k-f-r) means covering; Genesis 6:14 uses this same root for coating the ark with pitch. Here the priestly atonement carries that concrete sense of a covering for what is exposed before the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
kofer: Pitch or coating
כֹּפֶר
The word for pitch used to coat the ark shares this root, giving atonement a tangible image of covering.
kippur: Covering or atonement
כִּפּוּר
This related word preserves the covering sense within the name for atonement.
kapporet: Covering or mercy seat
כַּפֹּרֶת
The covering above the ark echoes the root’s meeting place between covering and sacred presence.
חַטָּאת
chatat
GROWS FROM
חטא
miss, miss the mark
“as an offering for falling short” in this verse is chatat. The word grows from חטא (ḥ-ṭ-ʾ; chata), meaning to miss or miss the mark. Its use here for an offering connected with bodily discharge shows that the term can address a ritual breach without making the person’s condition a verdict of moral wrongdoing.
ALSO GROWS
chet: Missing or fault
חֵטְא
This noun makes visible the root sense beneath the offering’s conventional name.
chote: One who misses or errs
חוֹטֵא
The related form shows how the same root can describe a person associated with missing, while this verse applies its offering form to a bodily condition.
מִזּוֹבוֹ
mizzovo
GROWS FROM
זוב
flow or discharge
The Hebrew word names a bodily flow, while “issue” can sound abstract. The verse locates the rite in what flows from the body, rather than in a judgment about the person’s character.
ALSO GROWS
zov: Flow or discharge
זֹב
This noun names the bodily flow at the center of the passage.
zav: One who has a discharge
זָב
This related form names the person by the condition the verse brings before the priest.
THE PATTERN
Covering meets what is exposed and gives it a place within protection or restored relationship.
And Aaron shall make a covering upon its horns once in a year, with the blood of the offering for falling short, the offering of coverings; once in the year he shall cover it throughout your generations; it is most set apart to the LORD.A Psalm of David, Maschil. Flourishing is the one whose rebellion is released, whose shortcomings are covered.Whom God set forth as a covering through trust in his blood, to show his alignment through the passing over of the missed marks that came before, in the holding back of God.THE THREAD
Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make nests in the ark, and cover it within and without with pitch.The Hebrew phrase behind “pitch it … with pitch” uses כפר (k-f-r), the same root as the priest’s atonement here. The coating that keeps the ark watertight makes the priestly word concrete: atonement carries an image of covering what is exposed before the LORD.
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