What Does Numbers 7:34 Mean?
One kid of the goats, as an offering for falling short.
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
One kid of the goats for a sin offering:THE KEY
The Hebrew names both the miss and its offering from one root, binding the response to what went astray.
THE MEANING
A miss is named, and a concrete offering is set beside it. The Hebrew word for “sin offering” belongs to the same word-family as the word for missing or going wrong, so what goes astray is not left unnamed.
THE ROOT
חַטָּאת
ḥaṭṭāʾt
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥṭʾ
To miss, go wrong, or err.
“as an offering for falling short” in this verse is ḥaṭṭāʾt. חַטָּאת can name both the miss and the offering associated with it. English separates them into “sin” and “sin offering,” while Hebrew keeps them in one word-family, holding the wrong and its response together.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss, err, or do wrong.
חָטָא
This verb shares the seed of “sin offering,” showing the link between the act of going wrong and the offering named here.
ḥēṭʾ: A miss or wrong; sin.
חֵטְא
This noun names the miss itself, making visible the shared root behind the wrong and its offering.
THE PATTERN
A concrete offering gives visible form to what is named as a miss or impurity, so it can be addressed.
Or if his falling short in which he has missed the mark is perceived by him, he brings his drawing near, a male kid of the goats without blemish;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.For if the blood of bulls and goats, with the ash of a heifer sprinkled on those made common, sets apart to the cleanness of the flesh.THE THREAD
Or if his falling short in which he has missed the mark is perceived by him, he brings his drawing near, a male kid of the goats without blemish;Here the same phrase names a kid of the goats as an offering when the miss becomes known. The Hebrew uses the חטא word-family for both the miss and the offering, making explicit the connection Numbers 7:34 compresses into one line.
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