What Does Leviticus 5:5 Mean?
And when he is guilty in one of these things, he speaks his falling short into the open, in that thing in which he has missed the mark.
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 it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing:THE KEY
The Hebrew word for confess belongs to the same root as praise and thanksgiving, joining the naming of a wrong to the language of open acknowledgment.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you when a particular wrong is yours to own: it becomes speakable and named. The confession does not erase the liability; it brings the missing into the open, where a response can begin.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that responsibility stays manageable only when it remains vague: the verse names the specific offense and still calls its bearer guilty.
THE ROOT
וְהִתְוַדָּה
vehitvaddāh
GROWS FROM
ידה
y-d-h
Acknowledge, confess, praise, or give thanks.
“speaks his falling short into the open” in this verse is vehitvaddāh. The form here brings the matter into acknowledgment rather than leaving it unspoken. Across this root family, confession and thanksgiving share language, placing the admission within open acknowledgment, not only private self-accusation.
ALSO GROWS
yādāh: Confess, praise, or give thanks.
יָדָה
This verb’s range joins the act of admitting something with the language of praise and thanks.
tôdāh: Thanksgiving, praise, or a thanksgiving offering.
תּוֹדָה
This noun makes the root’s connection between acknowledgment and thanksgiving visible.
חָטָא
ḥāṭāʾ
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
Miss or fail to reach; the root also names sin or a missing.
“has missed” in this verse is ḥāṭāʾ. The phrase locates the missing “in that thing,” keeping the wrong specific rather than turning it into a vague identity. The same root also names the offering associated with the missing, linking its acknowledgment to a response.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēṭ: A missing; sin.
חֵטְא
This noun preserves the sense of a particular failure or missing in the phrase “in that thing.”
ḥaṭṭāʾt: A missing or sin; an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
This form connects the named wrong with the offering described in the verses that follow.
יֶאְשַׁם
yeʾĕsham
GROWS FROM
אשם
ʾ-sh-m
Incur guilt or become liable.
“guilty” in this verse is yeʾĕsham. This verb names liability, not only an inward feeling of shame. The same root names the guilt offering in the next verse, linking accountable admission with a concrete response.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāshām: Guilt, liability; a guilt or reparation offering.
אָשָׁם
The following verse uses this noun for the offering brought in response to the liability named here.
ʾashmāh: Guilt or culpability.
אַשְׁמָה
This form keeps the root’s focus on responsibility for an offense.
THE PATTERN
When a wrong is brought into open acknowledgment, the text makes a path toward release and cleansing visible.
I make my falling short known to you, and my crookedness I do not cover. I say, I will speak my rebellion into the open before the LORD, and you release the crookedness of my falling short. Selah.Whoever covers his rebellions shall not prosper, but whoever speaks them into the open and lets them go shall be shown compassion.If we speak our shortcomings into the open, he is steady and aligned, to release our shortcomings, and to cleanse us from all crookedness.THE THREAD
I make my falling short known to you, and my crookedness I do not cover. I say, I will speak my rebellion into the open before the LORD, and you release the crookedness of my falling short. Selah.Leviticus uses וְהִתְוַדָּה (vehitvaddāh, confess), and Psalm 32:5 uses אוֹדֶה (ʾôdeh, I will confess), both from the ידה (y-d-h) root. The psalm places that confession beside “I have not hid” and “thou forgavest,” making the movement from concealment to acknowledged release visible.
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