What Does Leviticus 23:27 Mean?
Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of covering. It shall be a set-apart assembly for you, and you shall bend low your living souls, and bring near an offering of fire to the LORD.
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
Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.THE KEY
The day’s “atonement” carries the image of covering, while the thing brought low is the whole living person.
THE MEANING
This appointed day is a set-apart gathering before the LORD. Your living soul is brought low, and an offering made by fire is presented. Covering and inward affliction stand together in the observance.
THE ROOT
כִּפֻּרִים
kippurim
GROWS FROM
כפר
k-p-r
To cover; covering.
“day of covering” in this verse is kippurim. English “atonement” names a religious act; the Hebrew root retains the image of covering. That concrete image appears here beside the living soul brought low and the fire-offering, holding covering, inward affliction, and offering together.
ALSO GROWS
kipper: To cover; to make atonement.
כִּפֶּר
The verb makes the root’s covering action visible within the day’s name.
kappōret: The cover or lid over the Ark, traditionally called the mercy seat.
כַּפֹּרֶת
This branch gives the root a concrete covering image in the set-apart place.
נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם
nafshoteikhem
GROWS FROM
נפש
n-p-sh
Living being, person, life.
“living souls” in this verse is nafshoteikhem. “Your souls” refers to the living person, not merely an inward compartment. The word also reaches appetite, so the affliction concerns the whole life with its hungers and drives.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh chayyah: A living creature.
נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה
The same word names embodied living beings, showing how fully it can refer to a living person.
baʿal nephesh: A person given to appetite (Proverbs 23:2).
בַּעַל נֶפֶשׁ
This usage connects the living person with appetite and desire, dimensions that can also be brought low.
קֹדֶשׁ
qodesh
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
Set apart.
“set-apart assembly” in this verse is qodesh. The assembly is marked as set apart for the LORD. The same root names both the set-apart quality of the gathering and places designated for sacred encounter.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart.
קָדוֹשׁ
This form names the quality assigned to the convocation.
miqdash: A sanctuary; a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The shared root links the set-apart gathering with the place of sacred encounter.
THE PATTERN
Set-apart approach to the LORD joins the whole person’s inward humbling to an outward offering.
This is a statute for the ages for you. In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you bend low your living souls, and do no work at all, whether one of your own land or a sojourner who sojourns among you.But as for me, when they are sick, my clothing is sackcloth; I bow my living soul in fasting, and my prayer returns to my own bosom.But into the second, once a year, goes the high priest alone, not without blood, which he brings near for himself and for the unknowing missings of the people.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 Hebrew word translated “atonement” here comes from כפר (kaphar, to cover), the root behind this day’s name. The verse then names cleansing as its purpose, opening the image of covering onto its stated end: being clean before the LORD.
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