Bible word study

Kaphar (Strong’s H3722): Meaning in the Bible

Kaphar (כָּפַר) is the Hebrew word numbered H3722 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as to cover (specifically with bitumen); figuratively, to expiate or condone, to placate or cancel. In the King James Bible it is translated appease, make (an atonement, cleanse, disannul, forgive.

• Original wordכָּפַר
• Transliterationkâphar
• Pronunciationkaw-far'
• Part of speechverb (v)
• Strong’s numberH3722
• LanguageHebrew

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. a primitive root;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Kaphar appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Kaphar (H3722) stands behind 102 English renderings in 94 verses across 16 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Leviticus (49), Numbers (16), Exodus (8).

How the King James Bible renders Kaphar, by count

• atonement71 of 102 (70 percent)
• purged5 of 102 (5 percent)
• reconciliation4 of 102 (4 percent)
• away2 of 102 (2 percent)
• made2 of 102 (2 percent)
• merciful2 of 102 (2 percent)

Three places to read Kaphar

• Genesis 6:14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
• Leviticus 14:21 And if he be poor, and cannot get so much; then he shall take one lamb for a trespass offering to be waved, to make an atonement for him, and one tenth deal of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering, and a log of oil;
• Numbers 25:13 And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

And Christ

The verb means to cover or atone, to make things right at cost. Christians read it as pointing toward the cross, where the covering of sin is accomplished once for all in Christ.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

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