What Does Leviticus 16:18 Mean?
He goes out to the altar before the LORD and makes a covering for it, and takes some of the blood of the bullock and of the blood of the goat, and puts it upon the horns of the altar all around.
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 he shall go out unto the altar that is before the LORD, and make an atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about.THE KEY
Atonement here is a covering laid over the altar itself, with blood reaching its horns all around.
THE MEANING
The altar itself receives atonement: blood is placed on its horns all around. The verse makes the covering concrete and complete, extending even to the place where offerings are brought before the LORD.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Only people need cleansing; sacred places are automatically untouched.
THE ROOT
כִּפֶּר
kipper
GROWS FROM
כפר
k-p-r
to cover or coat over
“makes a covering” in this verse is kipper. The כפר root can describe sealing a surface with pitch and covering a sacred place through ritual. “Atonement” carries that physical image of covering here: blood is applied to the altar, reaching all around its horns.
ALSO GROWS
kopher: pitch, a coating
כֹּפֶר
In Genesis 6:14, this word names the pitch coating the ark inside and out, showing the root’s concrete sense of covering a surface.
kappōret: the cover over the ark
כַּפֹּרֶת
The cover over the ark of the covenant shares the root, linking covering with the sacred space where the LORD meets the people.
THE PATTERN
Covering is applied where exposure must be dealt with, whether on the altar, the ark, or through blood.
Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make nests in the ark, and cover it within and without with pitch.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.And nearly all things are cleansed in blood according to the instruction, and without the pouring out of blood, no release comes.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 verb for “pitch” in Genesis comes from the same כפר root as “atonement” here. One verse coats an ark against the waters; the other applies blood as a covering to the altar.
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