What Does Leviticus 5:6 Mean?
And he brings to the LORD, for his falling short in which he has missed the mark, his guilt offering, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats, as an offering for it; and the priest makes a covering for him from his falling short.
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 he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD for his sin which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats, for a sin offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “sin offering” also names the missing it addresses, while the priest’s act is a covering.
THE MEANING
Your missing is named here, and the verse gives it a concrete response: an offering is brought, and a priest makes covering on your behalf. The act answers the failure without calling it unreal or leaving you alone with it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A failure must be hidden to preserve you, or else it defines you completely; here it is named and met with covering.
THE ROOT
כִּפֶּר
kipper
GROWS FROM
כפר
cover; make a covering
“makes a covering” in this verse is kipper. The priest’s act carries the root picture of covering. The missing is addressed through a tangible act performed on the person’s behalf.
ALSO GROWS
kopher: covering; ransom
כֹּפֶר
This branch shows the root’s covering sense extending to a payment that covers a liability.
kapporet: cover of the ark
כַּפֹּרֶת
The ark’s cover carries the same root into the sacred space where the covenant tablets are kept.
חַטָּאת
chatta't
GROWS FROM
חטא
miss; err
“offering for it” in this verse is chatta't. The same Hebrew form can name both the missing and the offering associated with it. The word binds the breach and its ritual response together, where English gives them separate names.
ALSO GROWS
chata: to miss; to err
חָטָא
This verb names the act of missing that the offering addresses.
chet: a fault; a missing
חֵטְא
This noun keeps the focus on the specific failure rather than reducing the person to it.
THE PATTERN
Across scripture, a named breach is answered through concrete acts of covering, removal, or cleansing.
A Psalm of David, Maschil. Flourishing is the one whose rebellion is released, whose shortcomings are covered.And he touched it to my mouth, and said, Look, this has touched your lips, and your crookedness turns aside, and your falling short is covered.And nearly all things are cleansed in blood according to the instruction, and without the pouring out of blood, no release comes.THE THREAD
And he touched it to my mouth, and said, Look, this has touched your lips, and your crookedness turns aside, and your falling short is covered.The Hebrew verb translated “purged” comes from the same root כפר, covering, as the priest’s act in Leviticus. In both verses, the missing is named and met by an act that covers or clears it.
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