What Does Leviticus 9:2 Mean?
And he said to Aaron, Take a young calf as an offering for falling short, and a ram for the rising offering, whole, and bring them near before the LORD.
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 said unto Aaron, Take thee a young calf for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and offer them before the LORD.THE KEY
The offering for the missing is presented as whole and brought near: missing, wholeness, and approach meet in one scene.
THE MEANING
Your missing is named alongside an offering that is whole and brought before the LORD. What addresses the missing is not concealed from that presence; it is brought near.
THE ROOT
חַטָּאת
chatta't missing or
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
to miss, err, or go wrong
“offering for falling short” in this verse is chatta't missing or. The word translated “sin offering” is rooted in the language of missing or going wrong. Its name keeps the missing in view even as the offering addresses it.
ALSO GROWS
chata: to miss or err
חָטָא
The verb names the action behind the offering’s root: missing the mark.
chet: a miss or offense
חֵטְא
This noun shows the root can name the missing itself.
chatta't: missing; an offering for the missing
חַטָּאת
The same word can name both the missing and the offering associated with it.
תָּמִים
tamim whole or
GROWS FROM
תמם
t-m-m
to be complete or whole
The offering is described with a word whose root carries completeness and wholeness. Beside the word for missing, it places what is incomplete and what is whole in the same scene.
ALSO GROWS
tam: whole or sound
תָּם
This related form carries the root’s sense of wholeness.
tom: integrity or completeness
תֹּם
The branch extends wholeness from physical soundness to integrity.
tamim: whole, sound, or without blemish
תָּמִים
This is the verse’s description of what is brought before the LORD.
הַקְרֵב
haqrev bring near
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
to approach or draw near
“bring them near” in this verse is haqrev bring near. The Hebrew verb carries the movement of bringing near. The act in the verse is not only giving an offering; it is bringing it into presence.
ALSO GROWS
qarab: to approach or draw near
קָרַב
This verb names the movement held in the root.
qarov: near
קָרוֹב
This related word describes the nearness toward which the action moves.
qorban: an offering, something brought near
קָרְבָּן
The noun preserves the root’s sense of approach within the offering itself.
THE PATTERN
The offering that addresses the missing is brought near as whole.
Your lamb will be whole, a male of its first year. You will take it from the sheep or from the goats.For by one offering he has made complete without break those being set apart.but with the costly blood of the Anointed One, as of a lamb without blemish and without stain.THE THREAD
If the anointed priest misses the mark so as to bring guilt upon the people, then let him bring near, for his falling short in which he has missed the mark, a young bull without blemish to the LORD as an offering for falling short.This verse repeats חַטָּאת (chatta’t, missing or offering for the missing) and pairs it with an offering without blemish. The repeated root makes the link plain: the missing is named in the same offering that is brought near whole.
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