What Does Leviticus 9:8 Mean?
Aaron therefore drew near to the altar, and slaughtered the calf of the offering for falling short, which was for himself.
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
Aaron therefore went unto the altar, and slew the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself.THE KEY
The offering for the missing is a calf’s actual slaughter, and the priest himself stands inside the need it addresses.
THE MEANING
You can stand at the altar and still need what the offering addresses. A calf is actually slain for the one serving; the offering is not an abstraction. Sacred responsibility and personal need meet in the same person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The one who serves at the altar has no personal need for the offering.
THE ROOT
חַטָּאת
chatta't
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥṭʾ
To miss or err.
“offering for falling short” in this verse is chatta't. The offering’s name still carries the missing inside it: the word holds together the condition and what is brought for it. Because this offering is for Aaron himself, the one at the altar is included in the meaning it bears.
ALSO GROWS
chata: To miss or err.
חָטָא
The verb names the missing that remains inside the offering’s name.
chet: Missing or error.
חֵטְא
This noun names the condition directly, while חַטָּאת (chatta’t) also names the offering brought for it.
THE PATTERN
The one who carries a sacred role remains inside the need for an offering.
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.Because of this he owes, as for the people, so also for himself, to bring near for shortcomings.But into the second, once a year, goes the high priest alone, not without blood, which he brings near for himself and for the unknowing missings of the people.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.The Hebrew root חטא (chata, to miss) underlies both the priest’s missing and the חַטָּאת (chatta’t, offering for the missing) in this verse. Leviticus 4:3 makes the same link explicit for the anointed priest: the offering is for his own missing as well.
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