What Does Leviticus 16:3 Mean?
Thus Aaron comes into the set-apart place, with a young bullock as an offering for falling short and a ram as a rising offering.
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
Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering.THE KEY
The offering names what is missing, while the burnt offering is named for ascent; entry into the set-apart place holds both movements together.
THE MEANING
Your approach to what is set apart takes tangible form: one offering is named for what is missing, and another for what rises. The verse holds both movements at the threshold, making entry more than an abstract idea.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that entry into the sacred is purely inward: here, approach takes material form through a bull and a ram.
THE ROOT
לְחַטָּאת
ləḥaṭṭāʾt
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss, err, or go wrong.
“offering for falling short” in this verse is ləḥaṭṭāʾt. The offering’s name carries the root of missing: the same word-family names both the miss and the offering associated with it. The English phrase can sound like a category by itself, while the Hebrew keeps the condition and its ritual response connected.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss or err.
חָטָא
The verb for missing shares the seed in the offering’s name, joining the act and its ritual response.
ḥēṭʾ: A miss, offense, or wrongdoing.
חֵטְא
This noun makes visible the shared root between the condition and the offering named for it.
לְעֹלָה
ləʿōlāh
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-l-h
To rise, go up, or ascend.
“rising offering” in this verse is ləʿōlāh. The Hebrew name for the burnt offering is formed from the word for rising. That root puts ascent inside the offering’s name, so the verse pairs what is missing with what goes up.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: To rise, go up, or ascend.
עָלָה
This verb is the root’s basic movement and reveals the motion carried in the offering’s name.
ʿăliyyāh: An ascent or going up.
עֲלִיָּה
This branch keeps ascent as a concrete movement, echoing the offering that rises.
הַקֹּדֶשׁ
haqqōdeš
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
To set apart or make distinct.
The place Aaron enters is named as the set-apart place. The root makes the boundary part of the verse: this is not simply any place of approach, but one marked as distinct.
ALSO GROWS
qādôš: Set apart or distinct.
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective shares the root that names the place Aaron enters.
miqdāš: A sanctuary or set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
This related noun carries the same set-apart quality into the name for a sanctuary.
THE PATTERN
Approach to what is set apart takes concrete form through an offering.
And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and sent up rising offerings on the altar.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.Having therefore, brothers, open speech for entering the set-apart places by the blood of Jesus,THE THREAD
If the anointed priest misses the mark so as to bring guilt upon the people, then let him bring near, for his falling short in which he has missed the mark, a young bull without blemish to the LORD as an offering for falling short.Leviticus 4:3 uses חָטָא (ḥāṭāʾ, to miss or err) for the act and חַטָּאת (ḥaṭṭāʾt, an offering for the missing) for the offering. The shared root connects the miss and the offering named for it, opening the word-family already present in this verse.
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