kafar · cover, make expiation

What it means

kafar (כָּפַר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “cover, make expiation”.

Cover. Of the ark, coat it with pitch. Elsewhere in the Bible it is used for "make expiation": cover sin so that it is forgiven.

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. To cover guilt so there is forgiveness.
2. To calm someone, or cancel a covenant.
3. To coat with pitch.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To cover; in worship, to make expiation: to wipe out or cover guilt so that there is forgiveness. Also to appease someone. BDB: to cover; figuratively, to expiate, pardon, placate, cancel. From the same root come כֹּפֶר, “ransom”, and כַּפֹּרֶת, “cover of expiation”.

• Covering with pitch Genesis 6:14
• Appeasing a person Genesis 32:20
• The priest “shall make expiation” and they will be forgiven Leviticus 4:20Exodus 32:30
• The blood that makes expiation for the life; the day of expiation Leviticus 17:11Leviticus 16:30
• God himself makes expiation for iniquity Psalms 78:38Isaiah 6:7

Historical and cultural background

Leviticus 16 describes the day on which Aaron made expiation for the sanctuary and for all the people: “on this day expiation shall be made for you to cleanse you” (Leviticus 16:30). Leviticus 17:11 gives the reason of the blood: “it is the blood that makes expiation by means of the life”.

How we translate it

“Make expiation” 81 times, “expiated” 5, “expiation” 5, “made expiation” 3, “makes expiation” 3… This edition's glossary sets כִּפֶּר = “make expiation”, with the deviations “cover” (Genesis 6:14) and “appease” (Genesis 32:20); in Numbers 35:33 too it is “expiation”. The noun כֹּפֶר, payment for a life, is translated “ransom” (Exodus 21:30).

How it is translated

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

• make expiation ×81
• expiated ×5
• expiation ×5
• made expiation ×3
• makes expiation ×3
• expiation shall be made ×2
• I will appease ×1
• cover ×1
• will appease it ×1
• will be annulled ×1

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×2
• Exodus×9
• Leviticus×49
• Numbers×16
• Deuteronomy×3
• 1 Samuel×1
• 2 Samuel×1
• 1 Chronicles×1
• 2 Chronicles×2
• Nehemiah×1
• Psalms×3
• Proverbs×2
• Isaiah×5
• Jeremiah×1
• Ezekiel×6
• Daniel×1

• Genesis 6:14

  Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; with compartments you shall make the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.

• Genesis 32:20

  And you shall say, ‘Also, look, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he said to himself, “I will appease him with the gift that goes ahead of me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.”

• Exodus 29:33

  They shall eat those things by which expiation was made to ordain and to consecrate them; but a stranger shall not eat them, for they are holy.

• 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 29:37

  Seven days you shall make expiation for the altar and consecrate it, and the altar shall be most holy; whatever touches the altar shall become holy.

• 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 30:15

  The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when giving the contribution of YHWH to make expiation for your lives.

• Exodus 30:16

  You shall take the silver of expiation from the sons of Israel and give it for the service of the tent of meeting; and it shall be for the sons of Israel a memorial before YHWH, to make expiation for your lives.”

• 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.”

• Leviticus 1:4

  He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted for him to make expiation for him.

• 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 4:26

  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 4:31

  All its fat he shall remove, just as the fat is removed from the sacrifice of peace, and the priest shall offer it up in smoke on the altar for a pleasing aroma to YHWH. So the priest shall make expiation for him, and he will be forgiven.

• 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 5:10

  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 5:13

  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 5:16

  And what he has sinned against the holy thing he shall restore, and he shall add a fifth to it and give it to the priest; and the priest shall make expiation for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and he will be forgiven.

• Leviticus 5:18

  He shall bring a ram without defect from the flock, by your valuation, as a guilt offering, to the priest, and the priest shall make expiation for him for his inadvertence in which he erred without knowing it, and he will be forgiven.

• Leviticus 6:7

  And the priest shall make expiation for him before YHWH, and he will be forgiven for any one of all the things that he may do so as to become guilty by it.”

• 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.

• Leviticus 8:15

  He slaughtered it, and Moses took the blood and put it on the horns of the altar all around with his finger, and purified the altar; and the rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar, and consecrated it to make expiation for it.

• Leviticus 8:34

  What has been done this day, YHWH has commanded to be done to make expiation for you.

• Leviticus 9:7

  Moses said to Aaron, “Draw near to the altar and offer your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make expiation for yourself and for the people; and offer the offering of the people and make expiation for them, as YHWH has commanded.”

• Leviticus 10:17

  “Why did you not eat the sin offering in the holy place? For it is a most holy thing, and he has given it to you to bear the iniquity of the community, to make expiation for them before YHWH.

• Leviticus 12:7

  He shall present it before YHWH and make expiation for her, and she will be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the instruction for her who gives birth to a male or a female.

• Leviticus 12:8

  And if her means do not suffice for a lamb, she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and one for a sin offering; and the priest shall make expiation for her, and she will be clean.”

• Leviticus 14:18

  And the rest of the oil that is in the priest’s palm he shall put on the head of the one being purified; and the priest shall make expiation for him before YHWH.

• Leviticus 14:19

  The priest shall offer the sin offering and make expiation for the one being purified from his uncleanness; and afterward he shall slaughter the burnt offering.

• Leviticus 14:20

  The priest shall offer up the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar; and the priest shall make expiation for him, and he will be clean.

• Leviticus 14:21

  But if he is poor and his means do not reach, he shall take one lamb as a guilt offering for a wave offering to make expiation for him, and one tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and a log of oil,

• Leviticus 14:29

  And the rest of the oil that is in the priest’s palm he shall put on the head of the one being purified, to make expiation for him before YHWH.

• Leviticus 14:31

  such as his means reach, the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, with the grain offering; and the priest shall make expiation for the one being purified before YHWH.

• Leviticus 14:53

  He shall let go the living bird to outside the city, over the face of the field; so he shall make expiation for the house, and it will be clean.

• Leviticus 15:15

  And the priest shall offer them, one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering; and the priest shall make expiation for him before YHWH for his discharge.

• Leviticus 15:30

  And the priest shall offer the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering; and the priest shall make expiation for her before YHWH for the discharge of her uncleanness.

• Leviticus 16:6

  And Aaron shall present the bull of the sin offering that is for himself and make expiation for himself and for his house.

• Leviticus 16:10

  But the goat on which the lot for Azazel fell shall be set alive before YHWH to make expiation over it, to send it away to Azazel into the wilderness.

• Leviticus 16:11

  And Aaron shall present the bull of the sin offering that is for himself and make expiation for himself and for his house, and he shall slaughter the bull of the sin offering that is for himself.

And 63 more times.