What Does Numbers 9:13 Mean?
But the man who is clean, and is not on the road, and holds back from making the passover, that very living soul shall be cut off from among his people; because he did not bring near the offering of the LORD in its appointed time, that man shall bear his 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
But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the LORD in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.THE KEY
The able person’s omission is itself a missed meeting: the offering is an approach at an appointed time, and the person bears the missing.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks into the present wherever a person is able to answer an appointed encounter: being clean and unimpeded does not make withholding neutral. It places the missed approach and its consequence on the person who withholds it, who bears the missing and is cut off from among the people.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being clean or free from hardship makes a deliberate refusal harmless.
THE ROOT
בְּמוֹעֲדוֹ
bemoʿado
GROWS FROM
יעד
y-ʿ-d
To appoint, designate, or set a meeting; related forms refer to its fixed time.
“its appointed time” in this verse is bemoʿado. The appointed season is a set meeting, not just a convenient point on a calendar. The verse locates the refusal at a time already marked for encounter.
ALSO GROWS
yaʿad: appoint, designate
יָעַד
The verb shows that the time is deliberately set, making the omission a refusal of a known appointment.
moʿadim: appointed times, festivals
מוֹעֲדִים
This plural form names recurring set times, placing Passover within an appointed rhythm.
קָרְבָּן
qorbān
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
To approach, come near.
“did not bring near” in this verse is qorbān. The noun translated offering belongs to the word family of coming near. The verse presents the withheld offering as a withheld approach at the appointed meeting.
ALSO GROWS
qārab: draw near, approach
קָרַב
This verb makes the approach within the offering visible.
qārōb: near, close
קָרוֹב
The related word for nearness reveals the movement carried by the offering: bringing near.
חטאו
ḥaṭṭāʾô
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss, err; by extension, to sin.
“falling short” in this verse is ḥaṭṭāʾô. The phrase translated “bear his sin” uses a word family that also carries the sense of missing. The verse gives that missing weight: it remains with the person who withheld the appointed approach.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: miss, err, sin
חָטָא
The verb shows the root’s basic sense of missing, which gives “his sin” a concrete shape here.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: sin, offense; also an offering for sin
חַטָּאת
The same root names both the offense and an offering associated with it, keeping the idea of missing connected to a response to it.
THE PATTERN
When an appointed good is within reach, scripture treats withholding a response as consequential.
Three times in a year all your males shall be seen before the face of the LORD your God in the place he will choose, at the feast of unsoured bread, at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of booths. They shall not be seen before the face of the LORD empty. Each one shall give according to the gift of his hand, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you.Seven days you will eat unrisen bread. But on the first day you will make the leaven cease from your houses, for whoever eats risen bread from the first day until the seventh day, that living soul will be cut off from Israel.So to the one who has seen the beautiful thing to do, and does not do it, falling short is his.THE THREAD
Seven days you will eat unrisen bread. But on the first day you will make the leaven cease from your houses, for whoever eats risen bread from the first day until the seventh day, that living soul will be cut off from Israel.Both verses use נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, living person) and כרת (karat, cut off) in a Passover setting. Exodus makes the shared boundary visible: Numbers applies that same language to the person who declines the appointed Passover.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us