What Does Leviticus 16:30 Mean?
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.
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
For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.THE KEY
The covering reaches every miss, so you stand clean before the LORD.
THE MEANING
The covering reaches all that leaves you unclean, and its cleansing brings you into the LORD’s presence clean. The verse leaves no part of your missing outside the word “all.”
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that some part of your missing is too deep to be cleansed before the LORD.
THE ROOT
יְכַפֵּר
yekhappēr
GROWS FROM
כפר
cover; covering
“makes a covering” in this verse is yekhappēr. The word translated “atonement” grows from כפר, “cover.” Here, that covering is tied directly to cleansing: it reaches every missing, and you stand clean before the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
kappōret: covering; mercy seat
כַּפֹּרֶת
This name for the ark’s cover carries the same root image of covering into the sacred place.
kōfer: pitch; covering
כֹּפֶר
The word for the pitch that covers the ark’s wood keeps the root’s concrete image visible.
לְטַהֵר
letahēr
GROWS FROM
טהר
be clean; be pure
“cleanse / clean” in this verse is letahēr. The verse uses the same root for the act of cleansing and the resulting state of being clean. Hebrew holds the clearing and the cleanness together as one movement.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāhōr: clean; pure
טָהוֹר
This is the state the verse says follows the cleansing.
ṭohŏrāh: cleanness; purity
טָהֳרָה
The noun keeps the same root visible as a condition of being clean.
חַטֹּאתֵיכֶם
ḥaṭṭōtêkhem
GROWS FROM
חטא
miss; miss the mark
“shortcomings” in this verse is ḥaṭṭōtêkhem. The word for “sins” grows from חטא, “to miss.” The verse says the covering and cleansing reach every miss, with none left outside “all.”
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: miss; commit a sin
חָטָא
This verb shows the root beneath the plural “sins” in the verse.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: missing; sin; offering for the missing
חַטָּאת
This related form names both the missing and an offering associated with its cleansing.
THE PATTERN
What covers and cleanses the missing leaves no stain beyond its reach.
As far as the east is from the west, so far he puts our rebellions from us.Come now, and let us lay it out together, says the LORD. Though your falling short be as scarlet, it shall be whitened as snow. Though it be red like crimson, it shall be as wool.But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we share in common one with another, and the blood of Jesus, the Anointed One, his Son, cleanses us from all falling short.THE THREAD
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.The same כפר root appears here: covering is made through blood, and the verse names the blood as the life of the flesh. That makes the cleansing in Leviticus 16:30 concrete: the covering is bound to life given at the altar.
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