What Does Leviticus 16:20 Mean?
When he finishes making a covering for the set-apart place, and the tent of meeting, and the altar, he brings the living goat.
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 when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat:THE KEY
The live goat is brought near only after the holy place, meeting tent, and altar have been covered to completion.
THE MEANING
The place of meeting and the altar are covered to completion; only then does the living goat come forward. The order matters: covering the sacred space and bringing the living bearer near are distinct movements in one passage. Restoration has a prepared place and then a bearer for what is to be carried away.
THE ROOT
כִּפֵּר
kippēr
GROWS FROM
כפר
To cover over or coat.
“making a covering” in this verse is kippēr. The English “reconciling” can sound abstract, while כפר keeps the image of covering in view. Here that covering reaches the holy place, the meeting tent, and the altar before the living goat enters; restoration has an ordered, tangible shape.
ALSO GROWS
kappōret: Cover; traditionally rendered “mercy seat.”
כַּפֹּרֶת
The sanctuary’s cover carries the same root image as the act completed over the holy place.
kāphar: To coat or cover with pitch.
כָּפַר
In Genesis 6:14, this root describes coating the ark inside and out, making the covering image concrete.
kōpher: Pitch; also a ransom or covering price.
כֹּפֶר
The same root links a coating that seals with a price that covers a claim.
THE PATTERN
A burden named for many is gathered onto one bearer.
And Aaron leans both his hands upon the head of the living goat, and speaks into the open over him all the crookedness of the children of Israel, and all their rebellions, in all their shortcomings, setting them upon the head of the goat, and sends him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. The goat carries upon himself all their crookedness into a cut-off land, and he sends the goat away into the wilderness.All of us like sheep have wandered; each has turned to his own way, and the LORD has caused the crookedness of us all to fall upon him.Who himself carried our shortcomings in his own body on the tree, that we, dead to shortcomings, might live to alignment; and by his bruises you were healed.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 behind “pitch it” is כָּפַר (kāphar, to coat or cover), from the same root as “reconciling” here. In Genesis the root coats the ark inside and out; here it names the covering of the place of meeting.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us