HarperCollins Study Bible

by Harold W. Attridge

  27If anyone of the ordinary people among you sins unintentionally in doing any one of the things that by the LORD’s commandments ought not to be done and incurs guilt, 28when the sin that you have committed is made known to you, you shall bring a female goat without blemish as your offering, for the sin that you have committed. 29You shall lay your hand on the head of the sin offering; and the sin offering shall be slaughtered at the place of the burnt offering. 30The priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and he shall pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar. 31He shall remove all its fat, as the fat is removed from the offering of well-being, and the priest shall turn it into smoke on the altar for a pleasing odor to the LORD. Thus the priest shall make atonement on your behalf, and you shall be forgiven.

  32If the offering you bring as a sin offering is a sheep, you shall bring a female without blemish. 33You shall lay your hand on the head of the sin offering; and it shall be slaughtered as a sin offering at the spot where the burnt offering is slaughtered. 34The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar. 35You shall remove all its fat, as the fat of the sheep is removed from the sacrifice of well-being, and the priest shall turn it into smoke on the altar, with the offerings by fire to the LORD. Thus the priest shall make atonement on your behalf for the sin that you have committed, and you shall be forgiven.

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  4.1–35 The purpose of the purification offering (not properly sin offering) is to remove the impurity inflicted upon the sanctuary by the inadvertent violation of prohibitions. The brazen violation of these laws is punishable by death through divine agency (Num 15.27–31). Such serious violations include defilement of holy days (e.g., the Day of Atonement, Lev 23.29–30), contamination of sacred objects (7.20–21), prohibited ritual acts (17.3–4, 8–9), and illicit sex (18.29). The greater the sin, the deeper the penetration into the sanctuary compound and the more extensive the purification required (cf. vv. 3–21, 22–35; see note on 16.1–34).

  4.2 Any of the LORD’s commandments, including ethical ones (e.g., 19.11–18). The fusion of ethics and ritual is not an innovation of Israelite law. It is to be found in the earliest documents of the ancient Near East. Hence in pagan cultures too the violation of ethical as well as ritual norms can enrage the gods. But it is in Israel alone that both norms are tied to the purification offering and its central message: that the violation of ethics and/or ritual leads to the pollution of the sanctuary and its national consequence, the abandonment of the entire community of Israel by its God. Israel’s neighbors also held to, indeed were obsessed by, a fear that their temples would be defiled and the concomitant need to purify them. But the source of this defilement, in their system, was not human beings but demons, and the plethora of incantations, unctions, and rituals for the purification of temples was directed toward eliminating or warding off this supernal evil. Israel’s priesthood, as reflected in this sacrificial ritual, gave a national dimension to ethics, making ethical behavior an indispensable factor in determining Israel’s destiny.

  4.3 Anointed priest, the title of the high priest in preexilic times. Guilt on, more accurately “harm to,” the consequential meaning of the Hebrew noun ’asham, “guilt” (cf. Gen 26.10; Jer 51.5b).

  4.6 Sprinkle…seven times. Sevenfold sprinkling is attested for the blood of the purification offering (4.6, 17; 16.14, 15, 19; Num 19.4), for the oil and mixture of blood and water used in the purification of the healed leper (Lev 14.7, 16, 27, 51), and for anointing oil on the altar (8.11). In this chapter the blood of the purification offering acts as a ritual detergent purging the sanctuary of Israel’s impurities. Seven is the number of completion and occurs frequently in the cultic calendar: seventh day (sabbath), seventh week (Pentecost), seventh month (Tishri), seventh year (sabbatical), and forty-ninth (seven times seven) year (jubilee). Even the magical use of seven is attested in the Bible: Balaam requires seven altars, seven bulls, and seven rams for his divination (Num 23.1); Job’s friends require the same number of sacrifices (Job 42.8); Naaman bathes seven times in the Jordan (2 Kings 5.10, 14); Elijah’s servant scans the skies seven times for signs of rain (1 Kings 18.43); Joshua’s armies circuit Jericho seven times on the seventh day (Josh 6.15).

  4.7 Horns. The altar’s horns are right-angle tetrahedra projecting from the four corners and are of one piece with the altar (Ex 27.2; 30.2), as illustrated by archaeological finds from Megiddo and Beer-sheba. Their daubing with the purification blood meant the purgation of the entire altar by the principle of pars pro toto.

  4.12 Clean place. Though the sacrificial carcass has symbolically absorbed the sanctuary’s impurities, it is still sacred and must be treated as such. Ash heap. That there actually existed a special dump for the sacrificial ashes outside Solomon’s temple is shown by Jer 31.40 and by the discovery of a huge ash dump just north of ancient Jerusalem at the Mandelbaum Gate (the former passageway between East and West Jerusalem) consisting exclusively of remains of animal flesh, bones, and teeth.

  4.13–21 This passage forms a single case with vv. 1–12. The high priest has erred in judgment, causing the people who follow his ruling also to err (v. 3). Because both errors comprise inadvertent violations of prohibitive commandments (vv. 2, 13) that pollute the shrine, each party is responsible for purging the shrine with the blood of a similar sacrifice, a purification-offering bull.

  4.13 Incur guilt. The nuance is to feel guilt (see vv. 22, 27), the psychological component of the verb ’asham (cf. 5.2–5, 17; 6.4a).

  4.15 Elders act on behalf of the congregation (9.1; see Ex 3.16; 4.29; 12.21; 17.6; 18.12; 24.9).

  4.20 Sin offering, i.e., the “purification offering.” And, better “so that.” Only God determines the efficacy of sacrifice.

  4.22 A ruler, more specifically “a (tribal) chieftain.”

  LEVITICUS 5

  1When any of you sin in that you have heard a public adjuration to testify and—though able to testify as one who has seen or learned of the matter—do not speak up, you are subject to punishment. 2Or when any of you touch any unclean thing—whether the carcass of an unclean beast or the carcass of unclean livestock or the carcass of an unclean swarming thing—and are unaware of it, you have become unclean, and are guilty. 3Or when you touch human uncleanness—any uncleanness by which one can become unclean—and are unaware of it, when you come to know it, you shall be guilty. 4Or when any of you utter aloud a rash oath for a bad or a good purpose, whatever people utter in an oath, and are unaware of it, when you come to know it, you shall in any of these be guilty. 5When you realize your guilt in any of these, you shall confess the sin that you have committed. 6And you shall bring to the LORD, as your penalty for the sin that you have committed, a female from the flock, a sheep or a goat, as a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement on your behalf for your sin.

  7But if you cannot afford a sheep, you shall bring to the LORD, as your penalty for the sin that you have committed, two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. 8You shall bring them to the priest, who shall offer first the one for the sin offering, wringing its head at the nape without severing it. 9He shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar, while the rest of the blood shall be drained out at the base of the altar; it is a sin offering. 10And the second he shall offer for a burnt offering according to the regulation. Thus the priest shall make atonement on your behalf for the sin that you have committed, and you shall be forgiven.

  11But if you cannot afford two turtledoves or two pigeons, you shall bring as your offering for the sin that you have committed one-tenth of an ephah of choice flour for a sin offering; you shall not put oil on it or lay frankincense on it, for it is a sin offering. 12You shall bring it to the priest, and the priest shall scoop up a h
andful of it as its memorial portion, and turn this into smoke on the altar, with the offerings by fire to the LORD; it is a sin offering. 13Thus the priest shall make atonement on your behalf for whichever of these sins you have committed, and you shall be forgiven. Like the grain offering, the rest shall be for the priest.

  Offerings with Restitution

  14The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 15When any of you commit a trespass and sin unintentionally in any of the holy things of the LORD, you shall bring, as your guilt offering to the LORD, a ram without blemish from the flock, convertible into silver by the sanctuary shekel; it is a guilt offering. 16And you shall make restitution for the holy thing in which you were remiss, and shall add one-fifth to it and give it to the priest. The priest shall make atonement on your behalf with the ram of the guilt offering, and you shall be forgiven.

  17If any of you sin without knowing it, doing any of the things that by the LORD’s commandments ought not to be done, you have incurred guilt, and are subject to punishment. 18You shall bring to the priest a ram without blemish from the flock, or the equivalent, as a guilt offering; and the priest shall make atonement on your behalf for the error that you committed unintentionally, and you shall be forgiven. 19It is a guilt offering; you have incurred guilt before the LORD.

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  5.1–13 Rabbinic tradition distinguishes between the purification offering of ch. 4 and that of 5.1–13, calling the latter “the scaled offering” because it is geared not to status but to the financial means of the offender. This separate offering probably arises from the failure or inability to cleanse impurity immediately upon its incurrence.

  5.1 Any of you. See 1.2. Public adjuration, lit. “imprecation.” Thus Micah is induced by his mother’s imprecation to confess that he had stolen her silver (Judg 17.1–5). A striking parallel to this case is cited in Prov 29.24, which might be translated “He who shares with a thief is his own enemy; he hears the imprecation and does not testify.”

  5.2–4 Are unaware of it. The fact escapes him, i.e., he has perhaps repressed the matter. You have become unclean…you come to know it might be translated “though he has become unclean…though he has known it,” i.e., he knows he did wrong before amnesia set in and prolonged his impure state. Are guilty…shall be guilty, feels guilt (see 4.13).

  5.5 Confess. The Septuagint translates “declare,” i.e., articulate the confession, as distinct from the silent “confession” mandated for the inadvertent wrongdoer. Confession must be verbalized because it is the act that counts, not just the intention. By the same token, neither can mere thought bear consequences. For a curse to incur penalty, it must be pronounced and the name of God articulated (see 24.16). Confession is never required for inadvertences, only for deliberate sins (5.1–4; 16.21; 26.40; Num 5.6–7). Confession converts deliberate sins into inadvertences, thereby qualifying them for sacrificial expiation (see 6.1–7).

  5.14–6.7 The reparation offering is prescribed for trespass upon divine or human property, the latter through the use of a false oath. The sin to which it relates is desecration: the sacred objects (holy things) or the name of God have become desanctified (as opposed to cases of the purification offering in ch. 4, where the sin is contamination of sacred objects). Sins brazenly committed against God (i.e., a lying oath) can be commuted retroactively to inadvertent sins by subsequent repentance.

  5.14–16 Reparation offerings for malevolent sacrilege against sacred objects.

  5.15 Trespass, more accurately “sacrilege,” the legal term for the wrong that is redressed by the reparation offering. Convertible into silver. The priest charges the supplicant the amount of the desecrated sacred object plus the amount needed to purchase the requisite reparation animal. Guilt offering, better “reparation offering.” God must be compensated for the desecrated sacred object.

  5.16 And give it to the priest, or “when he gives it to the priest.”

  5.17–19 Reparation for suspected trespass against sacred objects.

  5.17 You have incurred guilt. He feels guilt (cf. 4.13), though he only suspects he has sinned.

  5.18 The equivalent, its assessment in sanctuary-weighed silver.

  LEVITICUS 6a

  1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2When any of you sin and commit a trespass against the LORD by deceiving a neighbor in a matter of a deposit or a pledge, or by robbery, or if you have defrauded a neighbor, 3or have found something lost and lied about it—if you swear falsely regarding any of the various things that one may do and sin thereby—4when you have sinned and realize your guilt, and would restore what you took by robbery or by fraud or the deposit that was committed to you, or the lost thing that you found, 5or anything else about which you have sworn falsely, you shall repay the principal amount and shall add one-fifth to it. You shall pay it to its owner when you realize your guilt. 6And you shall bring to the priest, as your guilt offering to the LORD, a ram without blemish from the flock, or its equivalent, for a guilt offering. 7The priest shall make atonement on your behalf before the LORD, and you shall be forgiven for any of the things that one may do and incur guilt thereby.

  Instructions concerning Sacrifices

  8b The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 9Command Aaron and his sons, saying: This is the ritual of the burnt offering. The burnt offering itself shall remain on the hearth upon the altar all night until the morning, while the fire on the altar shall be kept burning. 10The priest shall put on his linen vestments after putting on his linen undergarments next to his body; and he shall take up the ashes to which the fire has reduced the burnt offering on the altar, and place them beside the altar. 11Then he shall take off his vestments and put on other garments, and carry the ashes out to a clean place outside the camp. 12The fire on the altar shall be kept burning; it shall not go out. Every morning the priest shall add wood to it, lay out the burnt offering on it, and turn into smoke the fat pieces of the offerings of well-being. 13A perpetual fire shall be kept burning on the altar; it shall not go out.

  14This is the ritual of the grain offering: The sons of Aaron shall offer it before the LORD, in front of the altar. 15They shall take from it a handful of the choice flour and oil of the grain offering, with all the frankincense that is on the offering, and they shall turn its memorial portion into smoke on the altar as a pleasing odor to the LORD. 16Aaron and his sons shall eat what is left of it; it shall be eaten as unleavened cakes in a holy place; in the court of the tent of meeting they shall eat it. 17It shall not be baked with leaven. I have given it as their portion of my offerings by fire; it is most holy, like the sin offering and the guilt offering. 18Every male among the descendants of Aaron shall eat of it, as their perpetual due throughout your generations, from the LORD’s offerings by fire; anything that touches them shall become holy.

  19The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 20This is the offering that Aaron and his sons shall offer to the LORD on the day when he is anointed: one-tenth of an ephah of choice flour as a regular offering, half of it in the morning and half in the evening. 21It shall be made with oil on a griddle; you shall bring it well soaked, as a grain offering of bakedc pieces, and you shall present it as a pleasing odor to the LORD. 22And so the priest, anointed from among Aaron’s descendants as a successor, shall prepare it; it is the LORD’s—a perpetual due—to be turned entirely into smoke. 23Every grain offering of a priest shall be wholly burned; it shall not be eaten.

  24The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 25Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying: This is the ritual of the sin offering. The sin offering shall be slaughtered before the LORD at the spot where the burnt offering is slaughtered; it is most holy. 26The priest who offers it as a sin offering shall eat of it; it shall be eaten in a holy place, in the court of the tent of meeting. 27Whatever touches its flesh shall become holy; and when any of its blood is spattered on a garment, you shall wash the bespattered part in a holy place. 28An earthen vessel in which it was boiled shall be broken; but if it is boiled in a bronze vessel, that shall be scoured and
rinsed in water. 29Every male among the priests shall eat of it; it is most holy. 30But no sin offering shall be eaten from which any blood is brought into the tent of meeting for atonement in the holy place; it shall be burned with fire.

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  a Ch 5.20 in Heb

  b Ch 6.1 in Heb

  c Ch 5.20 in Heb

  6.2 Deposit. The neighbor was entrusted with the safekeeping of an object. A pledge, probably an investment.

  6.2, 4 Defrauded, better “withheld from.” The specific case is withholding wages from an employee (19.13).

  6.6 Equivalent. See note on 5.18.

  6.8–7.38 Supplementary instructions for sacrifices. Since the well-being offering is eaten chiefly by the donor, the rules pertain mainly to him (7.11–34, esp. 23, 29).Otherwise they are the concerns of the officiating priest. The subjects are the altar fire (6.8–13); the manner and place for eating the grain offering (6.14–18); the daily grain offering of the high priest and the voluntary one of the ordinary priest (6.19–23); safeguards in sacrificing the purification offering (6.24–30); the ritual for the reparation offering (7.1–7, missing in ch. 5); the priestly share in the burnt and cereal offerings (7.8–10); the types of well-being offering and their taboos (7.11–21); the prohibition against eating suet and blood (7.22–27); the priestly share of the well-being offering, set aside by the donor (7.28–36); and the summation (7.37–38).

  6.10 Body, a euphemism for genitals.

  6.11 Other garments. These must be nonsacral, profane clothes, as the priest was forbidden to wear his priestly vestments outside the sanctuary (see Ezek 44.19).