Language Studies

Hebrew Thoughts

kippûr - כִּפֻּר (Strong's #3725)
Atonement

"The 10th day of this 7th month shall be the Day of Atonement" (Leviticus 23:27, NKJ)

The word כִּפֻּר kippûr (Strong's #3725, x8) occurs just 8 times and is consistently translated as "atonement" in most Bible versions. Interestingly, it always occurs in the plural כִּפֻּרִים kippûrîym, suggesting both atonement for more than one person and with the idea of plural perfection and completeness.

Its first use is in Exodus 29:36 on the tasks of priests to make offerings. "And you will offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement(s), and you will cleanse the altar when you have made at atonement..." - the second instance of atonement in the verse is actually the related verb כָּפַר kâphar "to cover" (Strong's #3722, x102).

Again in Exodus 30:10 an annual atonement is prescribed also combining the noun and the verb (twice this time): "Aaron shall make an atonement (verb) upon the horns of it (the altar of incense) once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements (plural noun): once in the year shall he make atonement (verb)."

A few verses later, Exodus 30:16 talks about the half-shekel atonement silver or money that each person over 20 was to give, rich and poor alike, "to make atonement for your souls" - נֶפֶשׁ nephesh (Strong's #5315). The passage begins in v12 with it being a part of the רֹאשׁ rô’sh "headcount" (Strong's #7218, x598) of Israel and every man giving a "ransom for his soul". The word ransom is כֹּפֶר kôpher (Strong's #3724, x17) also translated as "pitch" and for which we come full circle back to the verb "to cover", first used in Genesis 6:14 of "covering" Noah's ark with "pitch", within and without, making it watertight.

Leviticus 23:27 is the first to use the phrase יוֹם כִּפֻּרִים yôwm kippûrîym "Day of Atonement" or more familiar to modern Jews as Yom Kippor, falling on the date 10 Tishrei, which is 3-4 October in 2014, but due to the nature of the Jewish calendar can vary from mid-September to mid-October. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, falls just over a week before on the Hebrew calendar dates of 1 and 2 Tishrei. The following verse 28 again links the verb to the noun. Leviticus 25:9 decrees that the שׁוֹפָר shôwphâr (Strong's #7782, x72) Shofar ram's horn be blown "in the day of atonement(s)".

This links into the next occurrence of הַכִּפֻּרִים ha-kippûrîym in Numbers 5:8 "the ram of the atonement". Numbers 29:11 is the last mention, again of a goat as sin-offering in atonement. We'll cover, no pun intended, עֲזָאזֵל 'azâ’zêl (Strong's #5799, x4) the "scapegoat" of Leviticus 16:8,10 in another Hebrew Thought.

Theological inferences from the Hebrew usage provide the following insights, firstly, that the root idea is of a covering, originally or pitch or hair, but with the idea of completeness. Secondly, the plural usage and yet more typically singular translations, also imply some kind of totality, perfection (a typical Hebrew way of expressing this), in other words, the covering atones for all completely. As with the original idea of hair for one's head or pitch for a boat or building it is protective and weatherproof. One can see how the practical word for applying pitch came to mean an expiatory covering, ransom, payment and offering.

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