What Does Leviticus 6:30 Mean?
And no offering for falling short, whose blood is brought into the tent of meeting to cover in the set-apart place, shall be eaten. It shall be burned in the fire.
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 no sin offering, whereof any of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of the congregation to reconcile withal in the holy place, shall be eaten: it shall be burnt in the fire.THE KEY
The offering that carries blood into the holy place for covering the missing cannot be eaten; it is wholly consumed by fire.
THE MEANING
Blood carried into the holy place marks a boundary: this offering is not eaten but consumed in fire. The verse holds covering for the missing together with the offering’s complete burning, with no portion turned into food.
THE ROOT
חַטָּאת
ḥaṭṭāʾt
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss or go wrong; a missing or fault.
“offering for falling short” in this verse is ḥaṭṭāʾt. The Hebrew word for the offering is built from the root for missing. The verse brings that missing into the place of covering, then draws a hard boundary: the offering is not consumed as food, but by fire.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss or err.
חָטָא
The verb reveals the action carried in the offering’s name: a missing is being addressed.
ḥēṭʾ: A missing or fault.
חֵטְא
This noun keeps the offering connected to the specific missing it addresses, rather than to wrongdoing as an abstraction.
לְכַפֵּר
ləḵappēr
GROWS FROM
כפר
k-p-r
To cover.
“cover” in this verse is ləḵappēr. The Hebrew verb translated “reconcile withal” carries the sense of covering. The verse places that covering in the holy place, while the offering itself is wholly given to fire.
ALSO GROWS
kippūr: Covering or atonement.
כִּפּוּר
This related word keeps the verse’s act of reconciliation connected to the root’s image of covering.
kōpher: A covering payment or ransom.
כֹּפֶר
This branch shows how the same root can describe a covering that answers for what is owed.
THE PATTERN
Offerings designated for the missing are burned rather than eaten, and the sanctuary-bound blood offering is wholly consumed.
And he carries the whole young bull out beyond the camp to a clean place, to the pouring place of the ashes, and he burns it on wood with fire, and it is burned upon the pouring place of the ashes.But the flesh of the young bull, and his skin, and his dung, you burn with fire outside the camp. It is an offering for falling short.For the bodies of those living ones, whose blood is carried into the set-apart places by the high priest for falling short, are burned outside the camp.THE THREAD
For the bodies of those living ones, whose blood is carried into the set-apart places by the high priest for falling short, are burned outside the camp.This verse holds together the same two movements: blood enters the sanctuary for the missing, and the body is burned outside the camp. It makes the boundary in Leviticus part of a wider sacrificial pattern.
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