What Does Leviticus 21:3 Mean?
And for his sister, a virgin near to him, who has not been to a man, for her he may become soiled.
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 for his sister a virgin, that is nigh unto him, which hath had no husband; for her may he be defiled.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “near” shares a root with “draw near” and korban, so this sister’s closeness is named as an approach into the priest’s sacred boundary.
THE MEANING
An unmarried sister can be so near that the priest is permitted to enter impurity for her. The permission is narrow, and the uncleanness remains fully named: closeness crosses a sacred boundary without making that boundary imaginary.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that sacred separation admits no exception: for this near, unmarried sister, the priest may enter impurity.
THE ROOT
קְרֹבָה
qerovah
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
to approach, draw near
“Nigh” can sound like a description of distance, but this Hebrew word belongs to a root of approaching. The same root is in korban, an offering understood as drawing near, so the verse’s language of kinship also carries the language of approach.
ALSO GROWS
qāraḇ: approach; draw near
קָרַב
The verb makes nearness an act of approach, illuminating why this sister’s relationship is the basis for a specific crossing of the priestly boundary.
qorbān: offering; a means of drawing near
קָרְבָּן
This branch links the language of closeness to sacred approach, placing the sister’s nearness within the verse’s setting of priestly separation.
יִטַּמָּא
yiṭṭammāʾ
GROWS FROM
טמא
ṭ-m-ʾ
to become ritually unclean
“become soiled” in this verse is yiṭṭammāʾ. The root describes entering a state of ritual uncleanness, without making the sister a moral stain. The priest may bear that state for her, and the verse keeps both the permission and the impurity present.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāmēʾ: unclean; ritually impure
טָמֵא
This adjective names the state the priest enters, clarifying the force of “defiled” in the verse.
ṭumʾāh: impurity; an unclean state
טֻמְאָה
This noun makes the condition itself visible: the priest’s permitted nearness carries a real status of impurity.
THE PATTERN
Contact with the dead marks a boundary of ritual uncleanness, while close kin are named as a bounded exception for the priest.
Whoever touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.But for his own flesh, near to him, for his mother, for his father, for his son, for his daughter, for his brother, he may become soiled.And they shall come to no dead person to make themselves unclean; but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister who has had no husband, they may make themselves unclean.THE THREAD
And they shall come to no dead person to make themselves unclean; but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister who has had no husband, they may make themselves unclean.Ezekiel uses the same Hebrew root for “defile” and repeats the unmarried-sister exception. The echo shows how precisely the permission is bounded: both the closeness of kin and her status are named.
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