כפר
to atone
‘to atone’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Piel verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
Stem
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
- Pual
- The passive counterpart of the Piel.
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
- Hithpael
- The reflexive or reciprocal stem (the subject acts on itself).
Form
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Cohortative
- A first-person volitional form expressing wish or resolve (“let me / let us write”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Jussive
- A third- or second-person volitional form expressing wish or command (“let him write”).
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
14 verses where H3722 appears in the Piel stem in the Book of Numbers. Filtered view — show all forms. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Numbers
- Numbers 5:8 יְכַפֶּר Piel impf 3ms But if the man has no kinsman to whom restitution may be made for the guilt, the restitution for guilt which is made to Yahweh shall be the priest's; besides the ram of the atonement, by which atonement shall be made for him.
- Numbers 6:11 וְ/כִפֶּ֣ר conj + Piel wpf 3ms The priest shall offer one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned by reason of the dead, and shall make his head holy that same day.
- Numbers 8:12 לְ/כַפֵּ֖ר prep + Piel inf.cs The Levites shall lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, and you shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering to Yahweh, to make atonement for the Levites.
- Numbers 8:19 וּ/לְ/כַפֵּ֖ר conj + prep + Piel inf.cs I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel, to do the service of the children of Israel in the Tent of Meeting, and to make atonement for the children of Israel; that there be no plague among the children of Israel, when the children of Israel come near to the sanctuary."
- Numbers 8:21 וַ/יְכַפֵּ֧ר conj + Piel wimpf 3ms The Levites purified themselves from sin, and they washed their clothes; and Aaron offered them for a wave offering before Yahweh; and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.
- Numbers 15:25 וְ/כִפֶּ֣ר conj + Piel wpf 3ms The priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the children of Israel, and they shall be forgiven; for it was an error, and they have brought their offering, an offering made by fire to Yahweh, and their sin-offering before Yahweh, for their error:
- Numbers 15:28 וְ/כִפֶּ֣ר לְ/כַפֵּ֥ר conj + Piel wpf 3ms prep + Piel inf.cs The priest shall make atonement for the soul who errs, when he sins unwittingly, before Yahweh, to make atonement for him; and he shall be forgiven.
- Numbers 16:46 וְ/כַפֵּ֣ר conj + Piel impv 2ms Moses said to Aaron, Take your censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and lay incense thereon, and carry it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from Yahweh; the plague is begun.
- Numbers 16:47 וַ/יְכַפֵּ֖ר conj + Piel wimpf 3ms Aaron took as Moses spoke, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and, behold, the plague was begun among the people: and he put on the incense, and made atonement for the people.
- Numbers 25:13 וַ/יְכַפֵּ֖ר conj + Piel wimpf 3ms and it shall be to him, and to his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.
- Numbers 28:22 לְ/כַפֵּ֖ר prep + Piel inf.cs and one male goat for a sin-offering, to make atonement for you.
- Numbers 28:30 לְ/כַפֵּ֖ר prep + Piel inf.cs one male goat, to make atonement for you.
- Numbers 29:5 לְ/כַפֵּ֖ר prep + Piel inf.cs and one male goat for a sin-offering, to make atonement for you;
- Numbers 31:50 לְ/כַפֵּ֥ר prep + Piel inf.cs We have brought Yahweh's offering, what every man has gotten, of jewels of gold, ankle-chains, and bracelets, signet-rings, ear-rings, and armlets, to make atonement for our souls before Yahweh.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
At its core, כפר (kâphar) means “to atone.” The King James Version usually renders it “make an atonement,” while modern versions prefer “make atonement” (Berean Standard Bible) — see the renderings breakdown. Spanning 94 verses in 16 books, it ranks among the moderately common words of the Hebrew Bible. Its uses concentrate in Leviticus (47% of all occurrences). Catalogued under 3 senses, its meaning is not single-sense. Dig into 94-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H3722 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 94
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 94 distinct verses.
- 16 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 16 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #415
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 415 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 94 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 94 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 70 verses · 74%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 14 verses · 15%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 10 verses · 11%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 5 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Make an atonement 29×, Shall make an atonement 20×, He shall make an atonement 4×
- American Standard Version†: Make atonement 26×, Shall make atonement 19×, He shall make atonement 4×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Make atonement 34×, Will make atonement 14×, Shall make atonement 4×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Make atonement 23×, And 22×, Shall make atonement 19×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H3722 across 102† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 37 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H3722 across 102† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 42 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H3722 across 100† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 30 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 2 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H3722 across 132† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 24 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 0 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
כפר I (of foll.
כפר II (√ of following).
כפר III denom. (from ii. כֹּפֶר)
כפר IV (√ of foll., = dig? cf. Sab. כפר, vb. dig, n. cave, DHM Anzeiger d. Wiener Ak., phil.-hist. Cl., Dec. 17, 1884, quoted by EutNab 27
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
I. (of foll.; orig. meaning dub., but perhaps cover, cf. Arabic كَفَرَ cover, hide; > RS who thinks of Aramaic כְּפַר, ܟܦܰܪ Pa. wash away, rub off, whence כֹּפֶר, כִּפֶּר of washing away, obliteration of sin: on orig. meaning cf. now DrHastDB Propitiation; also Assyrian kuppuru, purify (and deriv. takpirtu) ZimKAT 3, 601. MorgensternSin in Bab. Rel. (MVG, 1905, 3) 44, 122. NH כִּפֶּר, Aramaic כַּפֵּר and deriv.; Arabic كَفَّارَةٌ an expiation (see RSOTJC 1. 438; 2. 381 Kn on Lv 4:20 RiBegr. der Sühne WeComp 335 f. SmAT Rel. Gesch. 321 NowArch. ii, 192 Dr Dt 425 SchmollerSt. Kr. 1891, 205 ff. LagBN 230 ff.)).
II. (√ of following).
I. vb.denom. (from ii. כֹּפֶר)—Pf. 2 ms. וְכָֽפַרְתָּ֫ בַּכֹּפֶר Gn 6:14 and thou shalt pitch it with pitch (P).
III. (√ of following).
IV. (√ of foll., = dig? cf. Sab. כפר, vb. dig, n. cave, DHM Anzeiger d. Wiener Ak., phil.-hist. Cl., Dec. 17, 1884, quoted by EutNab 27; Nö ib. comp. also Ethiopic ከፈር basket, measure; Nab. כפר cave, sepulchre, synon. of קברא Nö in EutNab ib.)
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
בְּקִיעִין
- B’kiin, (K’far) P’kiin, modern Fukin, a place in Southern Palestine between Lydda and Jabneh, residence of R. Joshua. Y. Ḥag. I, beg. 75ᵈ. Snh. 32ᵇ; a. fr.
כּוֹפֶר
- (b. h.) cyprus flower (v. Löw Pfl. p. 212). Shebi. VII, 6 והכו׳ Ms. M. (ed. והכפ׳); Nidd. 8ᵃ.—Chald. כְּפוֹרָא.
כָּפַר
- 1. to bend, arch over, cover; v. כְּפוֹר, כּוֹפֶר &c.
- 2. [to pass over with one’s palm &c., to wipe out, rub (cmp. חפף),] to deny, withhold the truth by claiming ignorance; to ignore (mostly with ב of the object). B. Mets. 4ᵃ הכּוֹפֵר במלוה he who denied having received a loan (and was refuted before being sworn, v. הֶיסֵּת). Ib. על מה שכ׳ וכ׳ he is sworn on what he denied. Shebu. IV, 1 עד שיִכְפְּרוּ בהן בב"ד until they declare their ignorance (of the testimony) before court. Ib. 4 כָּפְרוּ שניהן וכ׳ if both witnesses pleaded ignorance at the same time. Ib. כָּפְרָה הראשונה if the first set of witnesses pleaded ignorance. Ib. VI, 3 והודה … וכ׳ בקרקעות and defendant admits the debt concerning vessels, but denies it as to landed estate. Sabb. 116ᵃ מכירין וכוֹפְרִין they know (true religion) and yet are disbelievers. Cant. R. to I, 14 (play on הכפר, ib.) שכ׳ באו"ה He disowned the gentiles (did not assist them), opp. הודה; a. v. fr.—כ׳ בעיקר to deny the principle of religion (unity of God &c.). B. Bath. 16ᵇ; a. fr.—Snh. 39ᵃ א"ל כּוֹפֵר ed. (Ms. M. קיסר) an infidel said &c.
- (v. כַּפָּרָה) to say of a person, ‘May his death be an atonement for his sins!’ euphem. for to be angry at. Pes. 69ᵃ אל תַּכְפִּירֵנִי בשעת הדין ed. (Ms. M. a. Ar. תְּכַפְּרֵנִי) do not make me an atonement (saying תהא מיתתו כפרה) at the time of judgment (differ. in comm.); Ab. Zar. 46ᵇ (some eds. תכפריני).
- [to wipe out,] to forgive, atone; to procure forgiveness. Yoma 5ᵃ כאילו לא כ׳ וכפר as if he (the priest) had not procured atonement (in the proper manner), although he has procured atonement (for the person concerned); Neg. XIV, 10 כ׳ ומעלין עליו כאילו לא כ׳ he has brought atonement, but it is accounted to the officiating priest as if he had not done so. Ber. 55ᵃ … כל זמן מזבח מְכַפֵּר על וכ׳ as long as the Temple existed, the altar was the means of atonement for Israel, but now each man’s table must be the means of atonement (ref. to Ez. XLI, 22). Tanḥ. Vayishl. 6 כשם … מְכַפֶּרֶת וכ׳ as the altar brings atonement, so does she (the chaste wife) atone for her household. Kidd. 57ᵃ, a. e. מכשיר ומכפר, v. כָּשֵׁר I; a. v. fr.—[Ab. Zar. 46ᵇ, v. supra]. e.g. Ezekiel 41:22
- to be expiated; to be forgiven. R. Hash. 18ᵃ; Yeb. 105ᵃ (ref. to I Sam. III, 14) בזבח … מִתְכַּפֵּר וכ׳ through sacrifice … it will not be expiated, but it may be so by the study of the Law. Shebu. 12ᵃ אשם … שנִתְכַּפְּרוּ בעליו an animal dedicated for a guilt-offering … whose owner has otherwise obtained atonement; (Tem. III, 3 שכִּפְּרוּ וכ׳ whose owner has procured atonement &c.). Yoma 50ᵇ, a. e. המִתְכַּפֵּר he for whose atonement the animal is dedicated. Ib. 51ᵇ שאין הצבור מִתְכַּפְּרִין בו as the community is not to obtain forgiveness through it (the bullock); a. fr.—Y. Macc. II, 31ᵈ bot. יעשה … ויִתְכַּפֶּר לו let him repent and he shall be forgiven; Pesik. Shub. p. 158ᵇ; Yalk. Ez. 358; Yalk. Ps. 702. Tanḥ. T’rum. 8 נתכ׳ להם they were forgiven; a. fr. e.g. 1 Samuel 3:14
כְּפַר
- , to deny, renounce. Targ. Jer. II, 27. Targ. Y. Lev. V, 21, sq.; a. fr.—B. Kam. 107ᵃ בכוליה בעי דנִכְפְּרֵיה ed. (Ms. M. דנכפר ליה, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l.) he would have liked to deny the whole of his indebtedness, והאי דלא כָפְרֵיה and the reason why he did not do so. Ib. 105ᵇ ממונא קא כ׳ ליה through his denial he withholds from him value. M. Kat. 18ᵇ כַּפְרַת בה Ms. M. thou growest a disbeliever through it (when thy prayer is not answered; ed. כ׳ בה׳ thou renouncest the Lord); a. fr.
- 1. to wipe out, efface. Targ. Prov. XXX, 20.—B. Bath. 167ᵃ כ׳ ליה וכ׳ Ms. M. (ed. מחקיה) he erased the horizontal lines of the Beth (v. כַּכָּא). Ḥull. 8ᵇ למִיכַפְּרֵיה with which to wipe the knife off. Yeb. 115ᵇ מיכַפַּר הוה כַפֵּר he would have obliterated the mark. Gitt. 56ᵃ ואתי לכַפּוּרֵי וכ׳ and wants to wipe his hands off on this man (me), i.e. desires to put the responsibility on me; a. e.
- 2. to forgive, atone, procure forgiveness. Targ. Lev. XVI, 17; a. fr.—Zeb. 6ᵃ מקיבעא לא מְכַפְּרָא וכ׳ as a specially appointed offering it has no atoning effect, by implication it has; a. fr.
- 1. to be wiped out, obliterated. Targ. II Esth. III, 8.
- 2. to be forgiven, to be expiated. Ib. Targ. Deut. XXI, 8; a. fr.—Yoma 50ᵇ בקביעותא מִתְכַּפְּרֵי וכ׳ (Ms. M. 2 מִיכַּ׳) do they (the high priest’s kindred and fellow priests) obtain forgiveness by special appointment (so as to be considered fellow owners of the sacrifice) or by implication? Kerith. 24ᵃ מִיכַּפַּרְנָא באידך חבריה my atonement shall be effected through the other animal; a. e.
כֹּפֶר
- , v. כּוֹפֶר
כָּפָר
- כפר to be round, [circle,] village, country town. Meg. I, 3 פחות מכאן הרי זה כ׳ if a place has less (than ten persons of leisure), it is considered a country place, opp. עיר גדולה. Ḥag. 13ᵇ v. יְחֶזְקְאֵל. Eduy. II, 3; a. fr.—Pl. כְּפָרִים. Meg. I, 1, sq.; a. fr. [In compounds:… כְּפַר pr. n. pl., v. respective determinants.]
נִבּוּר
- (K’far) Nibbur Ḥayil, v. next w.
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 48 distinct written forms H3722 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H3722, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derived from this word
- כפור kᵉphôwr H3713 bowl
- כפיר kᵉphîyr H3715 young lion
- כפר kâphâr H3723 village
- כפר kôpher H3724 ransom
- כפר kippur H3725 atonement
- כפרת kappôreth H3727 mercy seat
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 7 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 89 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 94 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 6:14
- Exodus 29:33
- Leviticus 1:4
- Numbers 5:8
- Deuteronomy 21:8
- 1 Samuel 3:14
- 2 Samuel 21:3
- 1 Chronicles 6:49
- 2 Chronicles 29:24
- Psalms 65:3
- Proverbs 16:6
- Isaiah 6:7
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
