The Hebrew word kaphar is a verb meaning to cover. It is found numerous times in Leviticus in reference both to men and women and to objects such as a house, the Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar. The “covering” needed is always because some kind of uncleanness, sin or impurity had been found in either the person or thing being addressed. The actions taken through sacrificial offerings provide the covering necessary so that, as the English translation of the word is rendered, “atonement” is made on behalf of the person or object and they are pronounced “clean”.
What a beautiful word picture this provides! We are not left exposed or naked, even in our cleanness, but are covered and made “at-one”.
“I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
Isaiah 61:10
“For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.”
2 Corinthians 5:4