What Does Leviticus 19:22 Mean?
And the priest shall cover him with the ram of the trespass offering before the LORD, for his falling short in which he has missed the mark; and it shall be released to him.
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 priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the LORD for his sin which he hath done: and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him.THE KEY
The verse names the act twice, but places a covering between the deed and its release.
THE MEANING
When you have done what this verse calls sin, the act remains visible: it is named twice. A covering is made before the LORD through the ram, and release follows. The deed remains real, while its hold ends.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that release requires pretending the deed never happened; the passage names it plainly before forgiveness follows.
THE ROOT
וְכִפֶּר
ve-khipper from kaphar
GROWS FROM
כפר
k-p-r
to cover or coat over
The verb translated “make an atonement” comes from the root for covering. That same root appears in the coating of Noah’s ark and the cover over the ark; here, forgiveness comes through an enacted covering, while the offense remains named.
ALSO GROWS
kopher: Pitch used to coat or seal
כֹּפֶר
The ark is coated with this root’s covering in Genesis 6:14, making the covering in this verse tangible.
kapporet: The cover over the ark of the covenant
כַּפֹּרֶת
The root also names a cover placed over what is held sacred, echoing the covering made before the LORD here.
kippurim: Coverings or acts of atonement
כִּפֻּרִים
This branch keeps the ritual language tied to the root’s image of covering.
חַטָּאתוֹ
ḥaṭṭāʾtō
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
to miss or err
“falling short” in this verse is ḥaṭṭāʾtō. The verse calls it ḥaṭṭāʾt, then describes the act with ḥāṭāʾ: the same root names both the condition and the doing. English hides that echo by rendering the verb “hath done”; the Hebrew repeats the language of missing before release follows.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss or do wrong
חָטָא
This is the verb behind “which he hath done,” connecting the act directly to the noun for sin.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Sin, or an offering for sin
חַטָּאת
This is the word translated “sin” in the verse, repeating the same root as the act it names.
THE PATTERN
Release follows a covering made for what remains plainly named.
Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make nests in the ark, and cover it within and without with pitch.A Psalm of David, Maschil. Flourishing is the one whose rebellion is released, whose shortcomings are covered.And nearly all things are cleansed in blood according to the instruction, and without the pouring out of blood, no release comes.THE THREAD
Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make nests in the ark, and cover it within and without with pitch.The verb behind “make an atonement” belongs to the kaphar root family, also used for coating Noah’s ark with pitch. One image is a vessel covered against the flood; the other is a person’s sin covered before the LORD.
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