What Does Numbers 28:15 Mean?
And one kid of the goats, as an offering for falling short, shall be brought near to the LORD, beside the unbroken ascending offering, and its poured offering.
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 one kid of the goats for a sin offering unto the LORD shall be offered, beside the continual burnt offering, and his drink offering.THE KEY
The offering for the missing stands beside the continual offering, holding a particular failure within a rhythm that continues.
THE MEANING
Your missing has a named place before the LORD, beside the continual burnt offering and its drink offering. A particular failure stands within a rhythm that continues; it does not fill the whole field of offering.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that one failure cancels every continuing provision: the verse places them side by side.
THE ROOT
חַטָּאת
ḥaṭṭāʾt
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
The root ḥāṭāʾ (חָטָא) means to miss, err, or fall short; חַטָּאת can name both the missing and an offering for it.
“offering for falling short” in this verse is ḥaṭṭāʾt. The Hebrew term holds the failure and the offering for that failure under one word-family. The verse gives what is missing a distinct place within the continual offering, rather than letting it stand unnamed.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss, err, or fall short.
חָטָא
This verb is the seed behind the offering’s name: the offering addresses what has gone missing or astray.
ḥēṭʾ: Missing, error, or sin.
חֵטְא
This noun shares the seed with חַטָּאת, keeping the offering connected to the specific missing it addresses.
נֶסֶךְ
nesekh
GROWS FROM
נסך
n-s-k
The root nāsaḵ (נָסַךְ) means to pour out or cast.
“poured offering” in this verse is nesekh. The drink offering is named through the act of pouring. The same root can describe metal poured into a mold, so the word draws attention to the substance being poured into a form.
ALSO GROWS
nāsaḵ: To pour out or cast.
נָסַךְ
This verb names the action behind the drink offering: something is poured out as part of the offering.
massēḵāh: A cast or molten image.
מַסֵּכָה
This related word uses the same root for metal poured into a mold, revealing the root’s focus on pouring and forming.
THE PATTERN
A distinct offering for what is missing appears within a repeated rhythm of offering.
Or if his falling short in which he has missed the mark is perceived by him, he brings his drawing near, a female kid of the goats without blemish, for it.This is what you offer on the altar. Two lambs of a year, day by day continually.Every priest stands each day serving and offering the same slain offerings again and again, which can never carry away shortcomings.THE THREAD
A Psalm of David, Maschil. Flourishing is the one whose rebellion is released, whose shortcomings are covered.The Hebrew word translated “sin” here is חֲטָאָה (ḥaṭāʾāh, chatta’ah), from the same חטא root as the offering in Numbers. Numbers names an offering for the missing; this psalm pictures that same missing as covered.
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