To cover (specifically with bitumen); figuratively, to expiate or condone , to placate or cancel
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כָּפַר is the Hebrew verb behind atonement — the act by which sin's claim on a person is covered, removed, and the relationship with God restored. The root image may be physical covering (pitching a boat so water cannot enter), but the theological use is precise: sin stands between the sinner and God, and atonement is the act that covers it so the relationship can be restored under God's provision.
Reader summary
Full entry for כָּפַר (H3722) · Open the biblical lexicon
כָּפַר is the Hebrew verb behind atonement — the act by which sin's claim on a person is covered, removed, and the relationship with God restored. The root image may be physical covering (pitching a boat so water cannot enter), but the theological use is precise: sin stands between the sinner and God, and atonement is the act that covers it so the.
The BSB source-word alignment has 102 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include to make atonement (27), will make atonement (14), and make atonement (6), shall make atonement (4), - (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 6:14. Its strongest book concentrations include Leviticus (49), Numbers (16), Exodus (8), Ezekiel (6).
כָּפַר is the Hebrew verb behind atonement — the act by which sin's claim on a person is covered, removed, and the relationship with God restored. The root image may be physical covering (pitching a boat so water cannot enter), but the theological use is precise: sin stands between the sinner and God, and atonement is the act that covers it so the relationship can be restored under God's provision.
Lev 17:11 is the load-bearing text: God provides blood as the atoning agent because life belongs to Him, and He accepts life on the altar on behalf of life that has forfeited its standing. Atonement is not the sinner earning favor back — it is God providing, through prescribed means, what sinners cannot cover for themselves. The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur, from כִּפּוּר the related noun) is the annual enactment of this reality for the entire covenant community.
כָּפַר in the Piel is concentrated in Leviticus and Numbers, where it governs the Levitical sacrificial system for sin. It appears at the architectural joints of the priestly legislation: at the ordination of priests (Lev 8), at the sin offering (Lev 4-5), and at its summit in the Day of Atonement (Lev 16). Outside the Pentateuch it appears in narrative (Exod 32:30, Moses' intercession), poetry (Ps 78:38, 79:9), and the prophets (Isa 22:14, 27:9).
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for your souls upon the altar; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.
The theological rationale of the entire sacrifice system. Atonement is not explained as legal fiction but as life covering life — God providing what He also requires. This verse is the interpretive key for all subsequent כָּפַר usage in Leviticus.
Because on this day atonement will be made for you to cleanse you, and you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord.
The Day of Atonement summary statement. כָּפַר here covers the whole community, not just individual offenses — it is the systemic, annual reset of the covenant people's standing before God.
The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. Now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
Moses' intercession after the golden calf. He goes up to attempt כָּפַר on behalf of Israel — not through a prescribed rite but through substitutionary intercession. God's response in vv.31-33 clarifies that sin cannot be erased by a third party's moral credit, foreshadowing what the full sacrificial system will require.
And yet He was compassionate; He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often restrained His anger and did not unleash His full wrath.
God as subject of כָּפַר — He Himself makes atonement by withholding deserved judgment. The same God who requires atonement provides it. This is the trajectory that the NT picks up in Rom 3:25-26.
The Lord of Hosts has revealed in my hearing: “Until your dying day, this sin of yours will never be atoned for,” says the Lord God of Hosts.
The negative use: some sin will not be כָּפַר under the current covenant terms. Isaiah announces that Jerusalem's specific sin of festivity in the face of judgment has exhausted the ordinary provision. Atonement is real; it is also not automatic or unconditional.
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How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Covering sin through ritual means literally covers it over, rendering it invisible and neutralized before God.
Covering sin through ritual means literally covers it over, rendering it invisible and neutralized before God.
to cover (specifically with bitumen); figuratively, to expiate or condone, to placate or cancel BDB: cover over Usage: appease, make (an atonement, cleanse, disannul, forgive, be merciful, pacify, pardon, purge (away), put off, (make) reconcile(-liation).
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 103 lexical occurrence verses.
כָּפַר is a primitive root - no further derivation.
The warning underscores the seriousness of unresolved sin. Isaiah 22:9-14
Highlights purification through divine action. Isaiah 27:7-13
The declaration that sin is atoned anticipates the broader biblical theme of substitutionary cleansing fulfilled in Christ. Isaiah 6:1-8
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Yom Kippur — the Day of Atonement — is named from this root. Every use of כָּפַר in Leviticus stands behind what Heb 9 calls the 'shadow' that the high priesthood of Christ fulfills. The pastoral power of כָּפַר is not the word itself but what it names: that between the problem (sin, חָטָא) and the outcome (restored standing with God) there is an action God Himself provides and prescribes.
The sinner does not cover their own sin. The covering is given, received, and enacted through the prescribed means. That is the theology of Lev 17:11, and it is why NT writers reach back to ἱλαστήριον (the mercy seat, the place of כָּפַר) when explaining the cross.
Lev.17.11
The related noun כֹּפֶר appears in Gen 6:14 for the pitch Noah used to seal the ark — a physical covering that kept death out. The same root in Piel makes atonement by covering what would otherwise let judgment in. The root image is protective covering, not erasure. The NT term ἱλαστήριον (translated 'mercy seat' in Heb 9:5 and 'propitiation' in Rom 3:25) is the LXX heir of כָּפַר in its most concentrated sacrificial use.
Rom 3:25 — God publicly displayed Christ as ἱλαστήριον (propitiation/mercy seat) through faith in His blood. Paul's argument in Rom 3:21-26 is that God was passing over former sins (Ps 78:38 pattern) in order to demonstrate His righteousness at the cross, where כָּפַר was fulfilled once for all. Heb 9:11-14 explicitly traces the high priest's כָּפַר on the כַּפֹּרֶת (mercy seat) to Christ's once-for-all entry into the true tabernacle.
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