What Does Leviticus 16:25 Mean?
He burns the fat of the offering for falling short upon the altar.
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 fat of the sin offering shall he burn upon the altar.THE KEY
The Hebrew names this as an offering for missing, while its fat is made smoke on the altar, the missing is met through a concrete, costly act.
THE MEANING
The missing is not weightless here: the offering’s fat, its rich portion, is placed on the altar and burned. The verse holds the response to missing as something embodied and costly.
THE ROOT
חַטָּאת
chatta't
GROWS FROM
חטא
chata
to miss, err, or go astray
“offering for falling short” in this verse is chatta't. The Hebrew name holds the language of missing in the word translated “sin offering.” The verse connects that missing to a concrete act at the altar, rather than leaving it as an abstract label.
ALSO GROWS
chata: to miss or err
חָטָא
This verb is the root behind the offering’s name, keeping the act of missing visible in the verse.
chet: a miss or error
חֵטְא
This noun preserves the root’s sense of missing that English can obscure when it renders the word simply as “sin.”
chatta't: missing; an offering for missing
חַטָּאת
This is the word used for the offering in the verse, joining the missing and the altar rite in one root-family.
יַקְטִיר
yaqtir
GROWS FROM
קטר
qatar
to make smoke; to offer by fire
The verb rendered “burn” belongs to the root that also names incense. That shared root brings the rising smoke of an offering into view beneath the English word “burn.”
ALSO GROWS
qetoret: incense
קְטֹרֶת
This noun shares the root of the altar verb, linking the act to smoke offered as incense.
yaqtir: to make smoke; to burn as an offering
יַקְטִיר
This is the verb in the verse: the fat is made to smoke upon the altar.
THE PATTERN
An offering becomes tangible in what is placed before God, fat, a body, or spoken praise.
And the priest sends them up in smoke upon the altar, bread of an offering of fire for a fragrance that settles. All the fat is the LORD's.Therefore I urge you, brothers, through the compassions of God, to set your bodies beside God as a living sacrifice, set apart, well-pleasing to him, which is your true service.Through him, then, let us always carry up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.THE THREAD
And he turns aside all its fat, as the fat is turned aside from the sacrifice of wholeness, and the priest sends it up in smoke upon the altar as a fragrance of rest to the LORD, and the priest makes a covering for him, and it is released to him.The verb translated “burn” here and in Leviticus 4:31 comes from קטר (qatar), “make smoke.” There the smoke is called a sweet savour, and the verse closes with the person released from the missing.
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