What Does Leviticus 4:32 Mean?
And if he brings his drawing near, a lamb, for the offering for falling short, he brings a female without blemish.
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 if he bring a lamb for a sin offering, he shall bring it a female without blemish.THE KEY
The lamb’s “without blemish” is תְּמִימָה (temimah), “whole,” from the same root translated “perfect” in Genesis 17:1.
THE MEANING
When a lamb is brought for the missing, the text names it as female and without blemish. The need is spoken plainly, and the thing brought near is marked as whole.
THE ROOT
חַטָּאת
ḥaṭṭāʾt
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss, err, or fail to reach.
“offering for falling short” in this verse is ḥaṭṭāʾt. The offering’s Hebrew name shares its root with the verb for missing or going astray. The word ties the offering directly to the missing it addresses, rather than leaving it as an abstract category.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss, err, or go wrong.
חָטָא
This verb shares the root of the offering’s name and makes the relation between the missing and the offering visible.
ḥēṭʾ: A miss, error, or fault.
חֵטְא
The same root names the missing that the offering addresses.
תְּמִימָה
temimah
GROWS FROM
תמם
t-m-m
To be complete or whole.
“without blemish” in this verse is temimah. The word carries wholeness, not merely the absence of a visible flaw. Its root also appears in the description of a whole way of walking before God, bringing the offering’s wholeness into connection with a person’s way.
ALSO GROWS
tāmîm: Whole, complete, or without defect.
תָּמִים
This is the masculine form from the same root, used in Genesis 17:1 for “perfect.”
tōm: Integrity or wholeness.
תֹּם
This related form shows the root’s reach from physical completeness to integrity.
קָרְבָּנוֹ
qorbānō
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
To approach or draw near.
The Hebrew word for offering grows from the root for drawing near. The verse describes what is brought near in response to the missing, and marks it as whole.
ALSO GROWS
qārab: To approach or come near.
קָרַב
This verb is the action held inside the word for offering.
qārōb: Near or close.
קָרוֹב
This related word shows the root’s spatial sense: what is offered is brought into nearness.
THE PATTERN
A lamb brought into a sacred act is repeatedly specified as whole, and that image later names a life offered for redemption.
Your lamb will be whole, a male of its first year. You will take it from the sheep or from the goats.And if it has a blemish, lame or blind, or any evil blemish, you shall not slaughter it to the LORD your God.but with the costly blood of the Anointed One, as of a lamb without blemish and without stain.THE THREAD
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, I am God Almighty; walk before my face, and be whole.The lamb is called תְּמִימָה (temimah, whole), and “perfect” here translates תָּמִים (tamim), from the same root. English gives “without blemish” to the offering and “perfect” to the walk, while Hebrew holds their wholeness together.
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