What Does Leviticus 16:34 Mean?
This is a statute for the ages for you, for covering the children of Israel for all their shortcomings once a year. And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.
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 this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year. And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.THE KEY
The yearly covering takes in the people’s whole field of missing without pretending it never happened.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you with a covering for all the people’s sins, appointed to return each year under the LORD’s command. The recurring rite names the missing and brings it under covering before the LORD.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must already be free of every wrong to be within reach of a covering: the verse says the atonement is made for all the people’s sins.
THE ROOT
לְכַפֵּר
lekhapper
GROWS FROM
כפר
kaphar
To cover.
“for covering” in this verse is lekhapper. The verb לְכַפֵּר (lekhapper, to cover or make atonement) grows from כפר (kaphar, to cover). Its branches name a covering and a covering price, showing that the verse’s atonement is an act applied to the people’s whole field of missing.
ALSO GROWS
kippurim: Atonements or acts of covering.
כִּפֻּרִים
This form shares the verse’s root and makes the covering in its yearly rite concrete.
kapporet: The cover over the ark, also called the mercy seat.
כַּפֹּרֶת
The cover over the ark shows the root’s covering sense in a physical object.
kopher: A covering price or ransom.
כֹּפֶר
This branch shows how covering can also mean a price given to secure someone’s release.
חַטֹּאתָם
chatto’tam
GROWS FROM
חטא
chata
To miss or fail to reach what is intended.
“shortcomings” in this verse is chatto’tam. The root חטא (chata, to miss) gives “sins” the sense of missed aim, not only a category of wrongdoing. “All their sins” gathers every such miss under the covering named by כפר (kaphar, to cover).
ALSO GROWS
chata: To miss or do wrong.
חָטָא
The verb makes the root’s sense of missing visible beneath the English word “sins.”
chatta’t: Sin, or a sin offering.
חַטָּאת
This noun links the people’s missing to the offering through which the covering is made.
THE PATTERN
The people’s whole field of missing is brought under a covering appointed to return at its set time.
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.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.But in those slain offerings, a reminding of shortcomings is made again each year.THE THREAD
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.The same כפר (kaphar, to cover) lies beneath “make an atonement” in both verses. Leviticus 16:30 names the covering’s movement toward cleansing and being clean before the LORD.
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