What Does Numbers 29:25 Mean?
And one shaggy goat as an offering for falling short; beside the unbroken ascending offering, its gift, 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; beside the continual burnt offering, his meat offering, and his drink offering.THE KEY
The offering for the missing stands within a larger rhythm of rising, giving, and pouring out.
THE MEANING
The verse places the missing beside what continually rises, what is given, and what is poured out. The offering for the missing sits within a wider pattern of approach and giving.
THE ROOT
חַטָּאת
ḥaṭṭāʾt
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss, err, or fail.
“offering for falling short” in this verse is ḥaṭṭāʾt. The Hebrew word-family holds both the missing and the offering named in relation to it. The offering’s name keeps it closely connected to what has missed.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss or do wrong.
חָטָא
This verb names the missing that the offering addresses.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: An offense or a sin offering.
חַטָּאת
The same word can name both the offense and the offering brought in relation to it.
עֹלָה
ʿōlāh
GROWS FROM
עלה
To go up or ascend.
The Hebrew name for the burnt offering comes from the root for ascending. Beside the offering for the missing, the verse sets what continually rises.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: To go up or ascend.
עָלָה
This verb is the seed behind the offering’s name.
ʿăliyyāh: Ascent or going up.
עֲלִיָּה
This related noun keeps the image of rising audible in the verse’s sequence of offerings.
נֶסֶךְ
nēseḵ
GROWS FROM
נסך
To pour out.
“poured offering” in this verse is nēseḵ. The Hebrew term names the libation through the act of pouring. The verse’s final offering is therefore pictured as a poured-out gift.
ALSO GROWS
nāsak: To pour out or cast.
נָסַךְ
The verb reveals the action contained in the drink offering’s name.
nēseḵ: A libation or poured offering.
נֶסֶךְ
This noun names the poured offering that completes the verse’s sequence.
THE PATTERN
These passages frame an offering by its relation to the missing it addresses, the gifts beside it, or the work it completes.
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.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.But this one, after bringing near one slain offering for shortcomings, sat down without break at the right hand of God.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.Numbers 29:25 uses חַטָּאת for the offering, while Leviticus 4:3 repeats the חטא word-family for both the act of missing and the offering brought for it. The shared root holds the missing and its offering in one linguistic frame.
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