Leviticus 19:22

Summary

The verse closes a ritual procedure: the priest performs atonement on behalf of the offender using a guilt-offering ram, before Yehovah, for the specific sin committed, and the result stated is that the sin will be forgiven.

Key words

• khiPer ("he will make atonement", H3722A) — piel stem (intensive/effective action) in sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain; the piel form indicates the priest performs an effecting action rather than a simple state.
• 'Eil ("ram of", H0352A) — construct form, meaning it is grammatically bound to the following noun, producing "ram of the guilt-offering" as a single unit rather than two separate items.
• 'aSham ("guilt offering", H0817) — absolute noun completing the construct chain begun by 'Eil, naming the specific sacrificial category.
• chataT ("sin of", H2403B) — construct form appearing twice (lines 15 and 24), each time bound to the following pronominal suffix "his," and each time followed by the relative clause 'aSher chaTa' ("which he has sinned/committed").
• nisLach ("it will be forgiven", H5545) — niphal stem (passive) in sequential perfect; the passive voice leaves the agent of forgiveness grammatically unstated, unlike the active piel used for the priest's atonement action.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of sequential perfects linked by the narrative ve ("and", H9001): first khiPer ("he will make atonement"), then nisLach ("it will be forgiven"). This chain structure ties the priestly action directly to its stated outcome within a single continuous clause. The verb khiPer is active and has the priest as its subject, while nisLach shifts to the niphal (passive) stem, so the grammatical subject of forgiveness becomes "the sin" (or "it") rather than a named agent — the text does not grammatically specify who forgives, only that forgiveness occurs.

The phrase be'Eil ha'aSham ("by the ram of the guilt offering") uses a construct chain to specify the instrument of atonement precisely as belonging to the guilt-offering category, distinguishing it from other sacrificial animals. The repetition of chataT...'aSher chaTa' ("his sin... which he has sinned") in two parallel clauses (lines 15-18 and 24-27) creates a doubling structure: the sin is named once in connection with the atonement act and again in connection with the forgiveness result, reinforcing that both actions address the same specific offense.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders khiPer with exilásetai ("he will atone"), matching the Hebrew's active voice with the priest as subject. For nisLach, the LXX uses aphethḗsetai ("it will be forgiven"), also passive, paralleling the Hebrew niphal. The Vulgate's repropitiabitur ei ("he will be reconciled to him") differs slightly in verbal image, using a reconciliation term rather than a direct forgiveness term for the second clause, though dimittetur peccatum ("the sin will be dismissed/forgiven") follows with a separate passive verb for the sin's removal, splitting the Hebrew's single nisLach clause into two Latin phrases.