What Does Leviticus 5:13 Mean?
And the priest makes a covering for him from his falling short in which he missed the mark in one of these, and it is released to him; and what remains is the priest's, as a gift.
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 as touching his sin that he hath sinned in one of these, and it shall be forgiven him: and the remnant shall be the priest’s, as a meat offering.THE KEY
The priest covers the person’s failure, the person is pardoned, and what remains from the offering becomes the priest’s portion.
THE MEANING
The verse holds failure and remedy in the same frame: the person’s miss is covered, and the person is pardoned. What remains from the offering belongs to the priest, so forgiveness and material provision happen together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that forgiveness is out of reach without a costly animal: the surrounding instruction allows an offering of flour, and the verse still declares the person forgiven.
THE ROOT
וְכִפֶּר
ve-kipper
GROWS FROM
כפר
Cover; put a covering over.
“makes a covering” in this verse is ve-kipper. English “atonement” can make the action sound abstract, but kipper belongs to the root כפר, “cover.” The verse pictures the person’s failure as something met with a covering, and the same root family carries that image into the sanctuary’s cover and a covering payment.
ALSO GROWS
kapporet: The cover over the ark, traditionally rendered “mercy seat.”
כַּפֹּרֶת
The same root family names a literal cover in the sanctuary, making the priest’s act of covering concrete.
kofer: A covering payment or ransom.
כֹּפֶר
This branch carries the covering image into the settling of a claim, echoing the verse’s movement from failure to pardon.
חַטָּאתוֹ
chatato
GROWS FROM
חטא
Miss, err, go wrong.
“falling short” in this verse is chatato. The root chata describes missing or going wrong, adding the sense of a misdirected act beneath the English word “sin.” The same family can name both the offense and a sin offering, holding the failure and its remedy close together.
ALSO GROWS
chote: One who sins, errs, or misses.
חוֹטֵא
It shows the root naming the person in relation to the act of missing.
chatat: Sin or, in sacrificial use, an offering for sin.
חַטָּאת
This branch joins the failure named in the verse to the offering provided for it.
וְנִסְלַח
ve-nislach
GROWS FROM
סלח
Pardon, forgive.
“released” in this verse is ve-nislach. The Hebrew form presents pardon as something received: the person is forgiven. The sentence moves from covering the failure to releasing the person from its hold.
ALSO GROWS
selichah: Pardon or forgiveness.
סְלִיחָה
This noun gives the same root’s action a name, matching the release granted in the verse.
sallach: Forgiving; one who pardons.
סַלָּח
This form describes the pardoning quality behind the release the verse declares.
THE PATTERN
Scripture repeatedly pictures pardon as a covering placed over what has gone wrong.
A Psalm of David, Maschil. Flourishing is the one whose rebellion is released, whose shortcomings are covered.And you make a covering of clean gold, two and a half forearms its length, and a forearm and a half its width.Flourishing are those whose rebellion is released, and whose shortcomings are covered.THE THREAD
And you make a covering of clean gold, two and a half forearms its length, and a forearm and a half its width.The Hebrew word translated “mercy seat” is kapporet (כַּפֹּרֶת), from the same כפר family as “make an atonement” here. It gives the root’s image a physical place: a cover over the ark, resonating with the priest’s covering in Leviticus.
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