H2403 — חַטָּאָה (chaṭṭâʼâh)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H2403
Original: חַטָּאָה
Transliteration: chaṭṭâʼâh
Pronunciation: khat-taw-aw'
Part of Speech: Feminine noun
Root: חָטָא (châṭâʼ, H2398) — to miss (a mark), to sin
Occurrences: 270 unique verses (306 tokens) in 25 books
First Occurrence: Gen 4:7 — "sin lieth at the door"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From H2398; an offence (sometimes habitual sinfulness), and its penalty, occasion, sacrifice, or expiation; also (concretely) an offender:—punishment (of sin), purifying(-fication for sin), sin(-ner, offering).

Note: The word carries a dual semantic weight — both the act of sinning and the sacrificial remedy that addresses it. Context distinguishes which sense is in view.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
sin offering (various)	~117	~43%
sin / sins (various)	~113	~42%
my/his/their/your sin(s)	~64	~24%
punishment	2	0.7%
purifying/purification	2	0.7%
sinner	1	0.4%

The two dominant senses — moral offense and ritual sacrifice — each account for roughly equal portions of the total.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Leviticus	66	7.7
Micah	6	5.7
Numbers	42	3.3
Hosea	5	2.5
1 Kings	16	2.0
Ezekiel	24	1.9
2 Kings	14	1.9
Lamentations	3	1.9
Nehemiah	5	1.2
2 Chronicles	9	1.1
Jeremiah	13	1.0
Isaiah	12	0.9
Zechariah	2	0.9
Proverbs	7	0.8
1 Samuel	6	0.7
Exodus	9	0.7
Amos	1	0.7
Daniel	2	0.6
Job	5	0.5
Psalms	12	0.5
Deuteronomy	4	0.4
Ezra	1	0.4
Genesis	4	0.3
Joshua	1	0.2
2 Samuel	1	0.1

Concentrated in Leviticus (24% of all occurrences) and Numbers (15%) — the two books governing sacrificial law. The prophetic books (Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Kings, Micah, Hosea) account for the second cluster, where chattaah denotes Israel's ongoing moral failure leading to exile.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Sin as Personal Moral Offense¶

The earliest and most basic sense: a specific act of wrongdoing that places the offender in legal/moral jeopardy.

Gen 4:7 — "if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door" (sin personified, crouching like a predator)
Gen 18:20 — "the cry of Sodom... because their sin is very grievous"
Exo 32:30 — "Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin; and now I will go up unto the LORD"
2 Sam 12:13 — "I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said... The LORD also hath put away thy sin"

2. Sin Offering (Ritual Sacrifice)¶

The technical cultic term for the offering prescribed to make atonement for sin. Chattaah here names both the category of sacrifice and specific ritual animals.

Exo 29:36 — "thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement"
Lev 4:3 — "If the priest that is anointed do sin... then let him bring for his sin... a young bullock without blemish for a sin offering"
Lev 4:29 — "he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering"
Lev 16:9,15 — "Aaron shall bring the goat... and offer him for a sin offering... he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people"

3. Corporate / National Sin¶

In the prophetic and historical books, chattaah names the accumulated moral debt of Israel and Judah — the spiritual cause behind national catastrophe and exile.

Hos 10:8 — "the high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed"
Mic 1:5 — "For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel"
1 Ki 16:2 — kings are condemned for making Israel sin (the pattern formula throughout Kings)
Eze 18:20 — the soul that sinneth carries its own chattaah

4. Sin, Punishment, and Exile¶

The legal consequence attached to unaddressed sin — sometimes the word itself carries the sense of penalty or recompense.

Lev 26:18,21,24,28 — "I will punish you seven times more for your sins" (repeated four-fold in covenant curse section)
Lam 3:39 — man punished for his sins
Zec 14:19 — "this shall be the punishment of Egypt... of all nations that come not up"
Gen 50:17 — "Forgive... the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin"

5. Confession, Forgiveness, and Cleansing¶

Chattaah appears frequently in petitions for pardon and in divine declarations of forgiveness — showing the word belongs not only to the problem but to its resolution.

Exo 34:7 — God's self-disclosure: "forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin" (triad: avon + pesha + chattaah)
Exo 34:9 — Moses: "pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance"
Exo 32:32 — Moses: "if thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me out of thy book"
Ps 51:2 — "Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
עָשָׂה (asah)	H6213	57x	"do/commit a sin" or "offer a sin offering"
חָטָא (chata)	H2398	51x	root verb alongside the noun: "sinned a sin"
עֹלָה (olah)	H5930	47x	paired sacrifice: "sin offering and burnt offering"
עָוֺן (avon)	H5771	43x	the triad of sin terms: iniquity, transgression, sin
שָׂעִיר (sair)	H8163	41x	he-goat as sin offering animal
כָּפַר (kaphar)	H3722	38x	"make atonement" for the sin offering
כֹּהֵן (kohen)	H3548	30x	priest performing sin offering rites
עֵז (ez)	H5795	30x	goat (female) as sacrifice
פַּר (par)	H6499	26x	bull as sin offering animal
יְהֹוָה (YHWH)	H3068	76x	sin is always against YHWH specifically

Word Family / Cognates¶

H2398 חָטָא (châṭâʼ) — root verb: to miss (a target), to sin; also denominative "to offer a sin offering"
H2399 חֵטְא (chêṭᵉʼ) — concrete noun: a crime or its penalty (fault, grievous, sin)
H2401 חֲטָאָה (chăṭâʼâh) — alternate form: offence or sacrifice for it (rarer, 8 verses)
H2402 חַטָּאָה (chaṭṭâʼâh) — Aramaic cognate (corresponds to H2403 in Aramaic sections)
H2408 חֲטִי (chăṭîy) — Aramaic: an offence (Dan)

Synonyms¶

H5771 עָוֺן (ʻâvôn) — iniquity/guilt; close moral-neighbor term, especially in confession and punishment passages.
H6588 פֶּשַׁע (peshaʻ) — transgression/rebellion; regularly paired with chaṭṭâʼâh in the major sin-confession triads.

Antonyms¶

No antonyms returned by search_relationships.py for H2403.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared KJV Translation	Key Difference
חֵטְא (chet)	H2399	"sin," "his sin"	More forensic/concrete: the criminal act or its penalty; chattaah has broader semantic range including the sacrifice
עָוֺן (avon)	H5771	"my sin" (occasional)	Avon = crooked inward moral nature/guilt; chattaah = the specific act and its sacrificial remedy
פֶּשַׁע (pesha)	H6588	"his sins," "sins"	Pesha = willful revolt/rebellion against authority; chattaah = missing the mark (may be unintentional)
אַשְׁמָה (ashmah)	H819	"sins"	Ashmah = guilt, guiltiness from a specific trespass; chattaah is the broader term

Note: Exo 34:7 and 34:9 deliberately pair chattaah + pesha + avon as a complete triad covering the full range of human sin — none is redundant.

Semantic Domains¶

Code	Domain Label	Notes
002003003018	Sin	Core domain for moral offense and culpability.
002003002020	Sacrifice	Captures the established "sin offering" sense that dominates Leviticus and Numbers.
002003002005	Chastise	Reflects passages where chaṭṭâʼâh shades into penalty, punishment, or covenant judgment.
002001001012	Clean	Reflects purification contexts where sin is removed, purged, or ritually cleansed.

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Co-occ	PMI	Notes
ἁμαρτία (hamartia) G266	242	31.95	Overwhelming primary equivalent; preserves both offense and offering sense
ὁλοκαύτωμα (holokautoma) G3646	33	14.04	Burnt offering — LXX sometimes renders the sacrifice sense this way
ἁμάρτημα (hamartema) G265	11	13.98	Concrete sinful act; used when chattaah = a specific sin (not the offering)
ἁμαρτάνω (hamartano) G264	32	13.71	Verb "to sin" — LXX occasionally uses the verb where Hebrew has the noun
ἀνομία (anomia) G458	31	13.19	Lawlessness — used in prophetic contexts where chattaah = national covenant violation

The G266 ἁμαρτία bridge is exceptionally strong (PMI 31.95, 242 co-occurrences out of 270 verses). See also TR-chattaah-hamartia.md for the full cross-testament trace.