Additional Note on כִּפֶּר (21:8, 32:43)
The note on 21:8 was so worded as to give the general sense of this term, whether its primary meaning were assumed to be (from the Syriac) to wipe, wipe off, or (from the Arabic) to cover. Although, however, there are many passages in which the use of the word could be naturally explained upon the former supposition, there are others (esp. Gn. 32:21) in which this is hardly the case: the latter (which is also the usual explanation) must accordingly be deemed the more probable one. The various applications of the word are best explained in the note in Wellh. Comp. p. 335 f. Kipper is to cover—never, however, in a purely literal sense (like בסה), but always morally, viz. with the collateral idea of either conciliating an offended person, or screening an offence or an offender. It is used in three applications. (1) Its most primary application appears in Gn. 32:21, where Jacob, in dread of Esau’s anger, says אֲכַפְּרֶה פניו במנחה I will cover his face with the present—i.e. conciliate him, the fig. being that of a person blinded by a gift (Ex. 23:8, 1 S. 12:3) so as not to notice something (cf. Gn. 20:16). Hence (face being omitted) kipper acquires the gen. sense of to conciliate, propitiate, appease, the means employed (the כֹּפֶר) being, according to circumstances, a gift, an entreaty, conciliatory behaviour, and esp. (see 2) a sacrifice: so Ex. 32:30 אולי אֲכַפְּרֶה בעד חטאתכם (by intercession: v. 31f.), fig. Pr. 16:14 (of a king’s wrath) ואיש חכם יכפרנה, Is. 47:11 (of calamity) לא תוכלי כפרהּ (|| שחרהּ to charm it away). The subst. kopher, lit. a covering, i.e. a propitiatory gift, is, however, restricted by usage to a gift offered as an equivalent for a life that is claimed,—the wergild so rigorously prohibited by Hebrew law (above, p. 234) in the case of murder, but permitted in certain other cases, and evidently a familiar popular institution. This sense of kopher illustrates 2 S. 21:3, where David says to the representatives of the murdered Gibe˓onites וּבַמָּה אֲכַפֵּר wherewith shall I make propitiation? the satisfaction demanded being the lives of Saul’s sons who are thereupon sacrificed to appease Jehovah’s anger (v. 6; cf. v. 1, 24:1) See also Nu. 35:33, comp, with v. 31, 32. (2) In the distinctively priestly phraseology (Ez. and P), the subject of kipper is the priest, the means a sacrifice—usually the blood of the sin-offering, or the guilt-offering (אשם), occasionally the burnt-offering (Lev. 1:4, 16:24), now and then something else: the object was perhaps orig. פני יהוה (cf. Gn. 32:11, and חלּה פני יהוה), the verb being construed absolutely, to perform a propitiatory rite, with על (on behalf of) the person, less freq. with בעד (Lev. 9:7, 16:6, 11, 17, 24, Ez. 45:17); but the use of the accus. of a material object (Lev. 16:20, 33, Ez. 43:20, 26, 45:20†) supports the view that the idea involved is to cover up (cf. כסה על, חתם בעד), screen, viz. by a propitiatory rite: there follows (if required) טן of the guilt from which one is freed (Lev. 4:26, 5:6, 10, 16:16 al.), or על (on account of), Lev. 4:35, 5:13, 18, G usually ἐξιλάσχομαι. See more fully on Lev. 4:20. (3) Sometimes God is the subject, who “covers”—i.e. treats as covered, overlooks, pardons, condones—either (a) the offender, or (b) the offence: so (a) Dt. 21:8a, 32:43, Ez. 16:63, 2 Ch. 30:18; (b) Jer. 18:23, Ps. 65:4, 78:38, 79:9, Dan. 9:24 (obj. in all עון or פשעים)†. God is also, no doubt, conceived as the implicit agent where the verb is passive: viz. Dt. 21:8b, 1 S. 3:14 (אם יתבפר עון בית עלי בזבח ובמנחה עד עולם), Is. 6:7 וסר עונך וחטאתך תְּכֻפֶּר (the means a purging or atoning rite); Is. 22:14 (means not specified); Is. 27:9, Pr. 16:6 בחסד ובאמת יְכֻפַר עון (the means meritorious conduct): in all these cases, the subj. is the iniquity, which, when the verb is in the active voice, is the obj. in (3b), but never in (2). On Nu. 35:33, see above, No. 1, at the end. In actual usage, the primary sense of covering was probably altogether forgotten. The connexion between the three applications may, perhaps, be best preserved by rendering in (1) and (2) propitiate, or make propitiation, and in (3) deal propitiously with. (S.R. Driver, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Deuteronomy [3d ed.; Edinburgh, T&T Clark, 1902], 425-26)
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