chataa · sin, sin offering

What it means

chataa (חַטָּאָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “sin, sin offering”.

Sin: missing the mark of what God asks; also the guilt and the punishment. In the laws the same word also names the sacrifice offered for sin.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. Failing God, not doing what he asks.
2. The guilt of sin, or its punishment.
3. The sacrifice offered for sin.
4. What cleanses from uncleanness.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Sin: to fail, to miss the mark of what God asks. BDB notes that it covers the offense, its penalty, its occasion and the sacrifice that expiates it. It comes from the verb חָטָא, “sin”.

• Sin as an offense Genesis 4:7Psalms 51:3
• “A great sin” Exodus 32:30
• The sin offering Leviticus 4:3Leviticus 16:5
• Sin taken away, expiated Isaiah 6:7
• An occasion of sin 1 Kings 12:30

Historical and cultural background

Leviticus 4 regulates the sin offering: a young bull for the anointed priest or for the whole community, a male goat for a chief, a female goat or a ewe lamb for one of the people.

How we translate it

“Sin” 223 times, “sins” 69. This edition's glossary sets “sin” and “sin offering” when the word names the sacrifice. In Leviticus the same word appears with both senses, sometimes in the same verse: “for his sin… as a sin offering” (Leviticus 4:3).

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• sin ×223
• sins ×69
• purification ×1
• sinner ×1

Where it appears

• Genesis×4
• Exodus×9
• Leviticus×82
• Numbers×43
• Deuteronomy×4
• Joshua×1
• 1 Samuel×6
• 2 Samuel×1
• 1 Kings×18
• 2 Kings×14
• 2 Chronicles×9
• Ezra×1
• Nehemiah×5
• Job×6
• Psalms×13
• Proverbs×7
• Isaiah×13
• Jeremiah×13
• Lamentations×3
• Ezekiel×24
• Daniel×3
• Hosea×5
• Amos×1
• Micah×6
• Zechariah×3

• Genesis 4:7

  If you do well, will there not be a lifting up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and toward you is its desire, but you will rule over it.”

• Genesis 18:20

  Then YHWH said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is indeed very grave.

• Genesis 31:36

  Then Jacob became angry and quarreled with Laban. Jacob answered and said to Laban, “What is my transgression? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me?

• Genesis 50:17

  ‘Thus you shall say to Joseph: “I beg you, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the Elohim of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

• Exodus 10:17

  So now, please forgive my sin only this time, and pray to YHWH your Elohim that he only remove this death from me.”

• Exodus 29:14

  But the flesh of the bull and its skin and its dung you shall burn with fire outside the camp; it is a sin offering.

• Exodus 29:36

  A bull for a sin offering you shall offer each day for expiation; and you shall purify the altar when you make expiation for it, and anoint it to consecrate it.

• Exodus 30:10

  Aaron shall make expiation on its horns once in the year; with the blood of the sin offering of expiation once in the year he shall make expiation for it throughout your generations. It is most holy to YHWH.”

• Exodus 32:30

  And it happened on the next day that Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to YHWH; perhaps I can make expiation for your sin.”

• Exodus 32:32

  But now, if you will forgive their sin… and if not, blot me out, please, from your book that you have written.”

• Exodus 32:34

  But now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Look, my angel shall go before you. But on the day when I call to account I will call them to account for their sin.”

• Exodus 34:7

  keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, calling to account the iniquity of fathers on sons and on sons’ sons, to the third and to the fourth generation.”

• Exodus 34:9

  And he said, “If, please, I have found favor in your eyes, Adonai, let Adonai go, please, in our midst; although it is a stubborn people, forgive our iniquity and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”

• Leviticus 4:3

  if the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, he shall present for his sin that he has sinned a young bull without defect to YHWH as a sin offering.

• Leviticus 4:8

  All the fat of the bull of the sin offering he shall take off from it: the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails,

• Leviticus 4:14

  when the sin that they have sinned in it becomes known, the assembly shall present a young bull as a sin offering and bring it before the tent of meeting.

• Leviticus 4:20

  He shall do with the bull just as he did with the bull of the sin offering; so he shall do with it. And the priest shall make expiation for them, and they will be forgiven.

• Leviticus 4:21

  He shall bring the bull to outside the camp and burn it just as he burned the first bull; it is the sin offering of the assembly.

• Leviticus 4:23

  or his sin that he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring as his offering a male goat without defect.

• Leviticus 4:24

  He shall lay his hand on the head of the goat and slaughter it in the place where one slaughters the burnt offering before YHWH; it is a sin offering.

• Leviticus 4:25

  The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and the rest of its blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering.

• Leviticus 4:26

  All its fat he shall offer up in smoke on the altar, like the fat of the sacrifice of peace. So the priest shall make expiation for him for his sin, and he will be forgiven.

• Leviticus 4:28

  or his sin that he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring as his offering a female goat, without defect, for his sin that he has committed.

• Leviticus 4:29

  He shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering.

• Leviticus 4:32

  And if he brings a lamb as his offering for a sin offering, he shall bring a female without defect.

• Leviticus 4:33

  He shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it as a sin offering in the place where one slaughters the burnt offering.

• Leviticus 4:34

  The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and all the rest of its blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar.

• Leviticus 4:35

  All its fat he shall remove, just as the fat of the lamb is removed from the sacrifice of peace, and the priest shall offer up in smoke them on the altar, on top of the fire offerings of YHWH. So the priest shall make expiation for him for his sin that he has committed, and he will be forgiven.

• Leviticus 5:6

  He shall bring his guilt offering to YHWH for his sin that he has committed: a female from the flock, a ewe lamb or a female goat, as a sin offering; and the priest shall make expiation for him for his sin.

• Leviticus 5:7

  And if his means do not reach enough for a lamb, he shall bring as his guilt offering for what he has sinned two turtledoves or two young pigeons to YHWH, one as a sin offering and one as a burnt offering.

• Leviticus 5:8

  He shall bring them to the priest, and he shall present the one that is for the sin offering first, and wring its head at the back of its neck, but he shall not divide it.

• Leviticus 5:9

  He shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the wall of the altar, and the rest of the blood shall be drained out at the base of the altar; it is a sin offering.

• Leviticus 5:10

  The second he shall offer as a burnt offering according to the regulation. So the priest shall make expiation for him for his sin that he has committed, and he will be forgiven.

• Leviticus 5:11

  But if his means do not reach to two turtledoves or to two young pigeons, he shall bring, as his offering for what he has sinned, a tenth of an ephah of fine flour as a sin offering; he shall not put oil on it, and he shall not put frankincense on it, for it is a sin offering.

• Leviticus 5:12

  He shall bring it to the priest, and the priest shall take from it his full handful as its memorial portion and offer it up in smoke on the altar, on top of the fire offerings of YHWH; it is a sin offering.

• Leviticus 5:13

  So the priest shall make expiation for him for his sin that he has committed in any of these, and he will be forgiven. And the rest shall be for the priest, as with the grain offering.”

• Leviticus 6:17

  It shall not be baked with leaven. I have given it as their portion from my fire offerings; it is a most holy thing, like the sin offering and like the guilt offering.

• Leviticus 6:25

  “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying: This is the instruction for the sin offering: in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered, the sin offering shall be slaughtered before YHWH; it is a most holy thing.

• Leviticus 6:30

  But no sin offering of which some of its blood is brought into the tent of meeting to make expiation in the Holy Place shall be eaten; it shall be burned with fire.

• Leviticus 7:7

  As the sin offering, so the guilt offering; there is one instruction for them: the priest who makes expiation with it, it shall be his.

And 254 more times.