What Does Numbers 29:5 Mean?
And one shaggy goat as an offering for falling short, to make a covering for you.
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, to make an atonement for you:THE KEY
Atonement here is a covering made for you, so your missing does not have the final word over your standing before God.
THE MEANING
Your missing is named plainly, and a covering is made on your behalf. The verse holds both facts together: the gap is real, and it does not leave you uncovered before God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that missing the mark leaves you permanently exposed before God.
THE ROOT
לְכַפֵּר
lekhapper
GROWS FROM
כפר
k-p-r
Covering.
“to make a covering” in this verse is lekhapper. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of covering, so atonement presents the offering as a covering made for you. The same root appears in words for a ransom and the cover over the ark, giving this image both a cost and a concrete place in the sacred space.
ALSO GROWS
kippurim: Atonements; coverings.
כִּפֻּרִים
The root names atonement itself through the language of covering, echoing the offering made for you here.
kofer: Ransom; covering payment.
כֹּפֶר
This branch shows the root can also name a payment that covers a claim, deepening the sense of what the offering does.
kapporet: Cover; the ark’s cover, traditionally called the mercy seat.
כַּפֹּרֶת
The same root family names a physical cover in the sanctuary, making the covering image tangible.
חַטָּאת
chatta’t
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss, or miss the mark.
“offering for falling short” in this verse is chatta’t. The offering is named from the root for missing, bringing the missing itself into the verse rather than hiding it. The covering meets what is named; it does not pretend the miss never happened.
ALSO GROWS
chet: A miss; sin.
חֵטְא
This noun from the same root names the missing that the offering addresses.
chote: One who misses; a sinner.
חוֹטֵא
This branch can name the person marked by missing, making the verse’s phrase “for you” especially direct.
THE PATTERN
The missing is named, then met by a covering that allows the person to stand before God.
For on that day the priest makes a covering for you, to cleanse you, so that you may be clean from all your shortcomings before the LORD.A Psalm of David, Maschil. Flourishing is the one whose rebellion is released, whose shortcomings are covered.Flourishing are those whose rebellion is released, and whose shortcomings are covered.THE THREAD
For on that day the priest makes a covering for you, to cleanse you, so that you may be clean from all your shortcomings before the LORD.Leviticus uses the same כפר (k-p-r) root for atonement: the covering in Numbers is joined here to cleansing before the LORD. The connection opens the verse’s covering as something that addresses the missing while making cleanness possible.
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