What Does Leviticus 5:17 Mean?
And if a living soul misses the mark, and does any one of the things that are not to be done by the commands of the LORD; though he does not perceive it, yet he is guilty, and carries his crookedness.
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 a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the LORD; though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity.THE KEY
The verse calls it a miss, yet says an unrecognized miss still has weight.
THE MEANING
A failure can be real before you recognize it; not knowing does not undo what the act sets in motion. The verse names that weight as liability carried by the person who did not know.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that ignorance makes an act consequence-free: not knowing does not erase the liability the verse names.
THE ROOT
תֶחֱטָא
teḥeṭāʾ
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss, fail, or fall short of the mark.
“misses the mark” in this verse is teḥeṭāʾ. The Hebrew word belongs to a family whose seed is missing the mark; that same family names the חַטָּאת (ḥaṭṭāʾt), an offering associated with the missing. The verse’s word for sin can therefore hold failure without implying that the person recognized it as defiance.
ALSO GROWS
ḥōṭēʾ: One who misses or sins.
חוֹטֵא
The person in the verse belongs to the same word family as the act: the miss describes what happened, whether or not it was known.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: A missing; also an offering associated with the missing, often rendered “sin offering.”
חַטָּאת
This branch shows that the language of missing also names a way the wrong is addressed.
וְנָשָׂא
wenāśāʾ
GROWS FROM
נשא
To lift, carry, or bear.
“carries” in this verse is wenāśāʾ. The verse makes the consequence something carried. The same Hebrew verb נָשָׂא (nāśāʾ, “lift or carry”) can also describe lifting guilt away in another phrase, so burden and release sit within one root, though here the clause says the person bears the burden.
ALSO GROWS
nōśēʾ ʿāwōn: Bearing or forgiving guilt; literally, carrying guilt.
נֹשֵׂא עָוֹן
This phrase uses the same verb found in the verse, revealing that its English rendering “bear” belongs to a wider sense of taking guilt up or away.
nāśîʾ: A leader or prince; one raised up.
נָשִׂיא
This related form carries the sense of being lifted up, another branch of the root’s movement of lifting.
וְאָשֵׁם
weʾāšēm
GROWS FROM
אשם
To incur guilt or liability.
“guilty” in this verse is weʾāšēm. The verse moves from the miss to a state of liability: not knowing does not erase what the act has brought about. This word family also names a reparation offering, linking guilt with the handling of the wrong.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāšām: Guilt or liability; also a reparation offering.
אָשָׁם
The same root names both the condition the verse describes and an offering associated with addressing that condition.
ʾašmāh: Guilt or culpability.
אַשְׁמָה
This form keeps the verse’s focus on liability within the same consonantal family.
THE PATTERN
A wrong does not become unreal because it is unseen, though knowledge may shape its measure.
Speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a living soul misses the mark through straying from any of the commandments of the LORD, concerning the things which ought not to be done, and does against one of them;If you say, "Look, we did not know this," does not the one who weighs hearts separate it out? Does not the one who guards your living soul know it? Will he not return to each man according to his deed?But the one who did not know, and did what deserves blows, will be beaten with few blows. To everyone to whom much is given, much will be sought from him, and to whom much has been placed beside him, they will ask all the more of him.THE THREAD
Guarding faithful love for thousands, carrying crookedness, rebellion, and falling short, and who by no means leaves the guilty clean, visiting the crookedness of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, to the third and to the fourth generation.The Hebrew verb נָשָׂא (nāśāʾ, “lift or carry”) appears with עָוֹן (ʿāwōn, “guilt”) in both verses; here the KJV says “bear,” while Exodus renders the same verb “forgiving.” The shared phrase shows that carrying guilt and lifting it away can be expressed through the same root, though this verse names the burden the person bears.
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