What Does Leviticus 16:15 Mean?
Then he slaughters the goat of the offering for falling short, which is for the people, and brings its blood within the curtain, and does with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkles it upon the covering and before the covering.
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
Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat:THE KEY
The “mercy seat” is also a covering, and the blood is placed both upon it and before it.
THE MEANING
The people’s missing is carried past the veil through the goat’s blood, which is sprinkled on and before the covering. For the reader now, the image joins covering with closest approach: what is named as missing is brought to the place where cleansing meets nearness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what is missing must remain outside the place of encounter: the blood for the people is carried within the veil.
THE ROOT
כַּפֹּרֶת
kappōret
GROWS FROM
כפר
Cover, cover over.
Kappōret (כַּפֹּרֶת, kappōret, covering) grows from kāphar (כָּפַר, kāphar, cover). The familiar “mercy seat” also holds the concrete image of a covering, and the verse places blood both on that covering and before it.
ALSO GROWS
kāphar: To cover or cover over.
כָּפַר
This verbal form makes the covering sense inside kappōret visible.
kippurim: Coverings; atonements.
כִּפֻּרִים
The word shares the root that links the Day of Atonement to the covering named at the center of this verse.
חַטָּאת
ḥaṭṭāʾt
GROWS FROM
חטא
Miss, err, or fail to reach the mark.
“offering for falling short” in this verse is ḥaṭṭāʾt. The offering is called chatta’t (חַטָּאת, chatta’t, missing or sin offering), from the root chata (חָטָא, ḥāṭāʾ, miss or err). The same word-family holds both the people’s missing and the offering brought on their behalf, carrying that connection all the way to the covering.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss, err, or do wrong.
חָטָא
This verbal branch gives the offering’s name its sense of a miss or failure.
ḥēt: Missing, offense.
חֵטְא
This noun shares the root and shows how the language connects the people’s missing with the offering named here.
THE PATTERN
Blood is brought to the place of covering as part of cleansing what separates the people.
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.For the living soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make a covering for your living souls, for it is the blood that covers the living soul.And nearly all things are cleansed in blood according to the instruction, and without the pouring out of blood, no release comes.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.The “mercy seat” here is kappōret (כַּפֹּרֶת, kappōret, covering), from kāphar (כָּפַר, kāphar, cover). In this verse, “make an atonement” uses that same root, and cleansing names the result of the movement toward covering.
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