What Does Leviticus 16:33 Mean?

He makes a covering for the set-apart sanctuary, for the tent of meeting and the altar, for the priests, and for all the people of the assembly.

Leviticus 16:33 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And he shall make an atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make an atonement for the tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar, and he shall make an atonement for the priests, and for all the people of the congregation.

THE KEY

The same act of covering reaches the sanctuary, altar, priests, and people: no part of the shared sacred life stands outside it.

THE MEANING

This verse meets you as part of a whole: the places where you gather, the work carried out there, and the people beside you all belong within the same covering. It holds the sanctuary, tent, altar, priests, and congregation together rather than isolating one person from the space and shared life around them.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The idea that only the individual needs covering; here, the sacred space, altar, priests, and congregation are all named.

THE ROOT

כִּפֶּר

kipper

GROWS FROM

כפר

K-P-R

cover, cover over

“makes a covering” in this verse is kipper. The same verb is repeated across the sanctuary, tent, altar, priests, and congregation: covering reaches across the whole sacred field, not only an individual. This root also describes coating Noah’s ark with pitch, where a covering seals and preserves; the shared word makes the image concrete without making the two acts identical.

ALSO GROWS

kippūr: covering; atonement

כִּפּוּר

This noun preserves the same covering sense carried by the repeated verb in the verse.

kōfer: pitch, a coating or covering; in other contexts, a covering payment

כֹּפֶר

The same root supplies the word for the pitch coating the ark, giving a physical image of covering.

THE PATTERN

The covering extends across the whole field of worship, from sacred objects to the gathered people.

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.

Exodus 30:10 · SDVThe altar itself receives the yearly atonement, as the sanctuary and altar do in Leviticus.

A Psalm of David, Maschil. Flourishing is the one whose rebellion is released, whose shortcomings are covered.

Psalm 32:1 · SDVThe covering reaches the person’s transgression, showing the same image applied to what weighs on an individual.

And nearly all things are cleansed in blood according to the instruction, and without the pouring out of blood, no release comes.

Hebrews 9:22 · SDVThe verse speaks of purging both things and people’s release from wrongdoing, spanning the sacred and the personal.

THE THREAD

Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make nests in the ark, and cover it within and without with pitch.

Genesis 6:14 · SDV

The Hebrew verb translated “pitch it” comes from the same ⁨כפר⁩ (K-P-R) root as “make an atonement” here. In Genesis, the root names a coating that seals the ark; in Leviticus, it names a covering extended across the sanctuary and its people.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us