What Does Leviticus 23:19 Mean?
Then you shall slaughter one shaggy goat as an offering for falling short, and two lambs of the first year as a wholeness offering.
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
Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings.THE KEY
The Hebrew places what is missing beside wholeness, so wholeness does not have to erase what has gone wrong.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now by holding two realities together: what has gone wrong is named, and wholeness is named alongside it. Neither cancels the other; wholeness does not require pretending nothing is missing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that wholeness requires concealing what is missing.
THE ROOT
חַטָּאת
chatat
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥṭʾ
to miss, go wrong, or miss the mark
“offering for falling short” in this verse is chatat. Under “sin offering” is חַטָּאת (chatat, an offering for the missing), from חטא (ḥṭʾ, to miss or go wrong). Its branches keep the focus on a miss or misstep, while the paired shelamim names wholeness: the verse gives each its own place.
ALSO GROWS
chata: to miss; to go wrong
חָטָא
This verb is the action beneath the offering’s name: something has missed its mark and is brought into view.
chet: a missing; an offense
חֵטְא
This noun names the miss itself, keeping the verse’s attention on what has gone wrong and can be addressed.
שְׁלָמִים
shelamim
GROWS FROM
שלם
š-l-m
to be whole or complete; to make whole
“wholeness offering” in this verse is shelamim. שְׁלָמִים (shelamim, offerings of wholeness) belongs to the root שלם (š-l-m, whole or complete). Its branches connect wholeness with well-being and making good, so the verse places a distinct movement toward wholeness beside what is missing.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: wholeness; well-being
שָׁלוֹם
This familiar branch shares the root of shelamim and shows how the offering’s name belongs to a wider language of wholeness.
shalem: whole; complete
שָׁלֵם
This branch names the state carried in the root, illuminating the wholeness named alongside the offering for the missing.
shillem: to repay; to make good
שִׁלֵּם
This branch carries the sense of making good what is owed, adding a dimension of restoration to the root’s wholeness.
THE PATTERN
What is broken can be named while wholeness is also held in view; neither has to cancel the other.
The slaughtered offerings of God are a broken breath; a broken and crushed heart, O God, you do not despise.The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with wholeness.For he is our wholeness, the one who made both one and loosed the middle wall of the fence.THE THREAD
The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with wholeness.The Hebrew שְׁלָמִים (shelamim, offerings of wholeness) and שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) grow from שלם (š-l-m, whole or complete). Leviticus gives this root a ritual shape; the psalm names wholeness as a blessing given to the people.
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