1And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying,
2“Speak to the children of Israel, saying: A person who sins by mistake—of any of YHWH’s commandments that are not to be done—and does any one of them:
4:2. A person who sins. At the time that I am writing this, it has been almost two thousand years since the second Jerusalem Temple was destroyed and sacrifices ended in Judaism. The two largest religions, Christianity and Islam, also do not perform sacrifices, and so it has been so long since we have seen or done this practice that all but a few people are unclear about what sacrifice was. Frequently they imagine that it meant that people regularly destroyed much of their livestock for no reason. This is wrong.
The purpose of sacrifice was to recognize that an animal’s life was sacred.
The order of the book of Leviticus itself may have contributed to the misunderstanding of sacrifice. It deals with the sacrifices that go to the priests first (in Leviticus 1–7) and does not get to the “food” sacrifices until Leviticus 17.
Most sacrificed animals are eaten by the persons who bring the animals to the altar. There is also a second group of sacrifices, which involve the ritual slaughter of an animal that is not for consumption by the person who brings the sacrifice. Rather, the meat is eaten by the priests or is entirely burnt. Such sacrifices relate to guilt and expiation. The introduction of law means the introduction of violations of the law. Besides addressing matters of punishment (compensation, execution), the system requires some means of dealing with individuals’ feelings of guilt—and with public condemnation. This is achieved through the sacrificial system, including sacrifices for unwitting violations, by individuals or the community (Leviticus 4 and 5), and sacrifices for various other feelings on the part of the offerer (Leviticus 1–3). The system that provides grounds for guilt also provides a mechanism for expiation and forgiveness.
Sacrifice is the only mechanism for forgiveness in the book of Leviticus. There is no suggestion in Leviticus that repentance alone can bring forgiveness for violations of the laws, no indication that one can appeal to YHWH’s mercy, His grace, or His kindness for atonement. Indeed, the words “repentance” (
ûb), “mercy” (ra
mîm), “grace” (
n), and “kindness” (esed) do not occur in Leviticus. Thus the psychological and spiritual state of the community is linked powerfully to this visible, tangible act. And this psychological and spiritual focus, together with the very physical focus of the consumption of meat, places sacrifice in a critical and pervasive role in the community’s life. And it places the priests who alone can perform sacrifice in a correspondingly critical role. And, no less significantly, it concentrates the community’s attention on the single place where sacrifice can be performed: the Tabernacle, or Tent of Meeting.
4:2. by mistake. This begins a lengthy section on what to do when people sin by mistake: a priest, the entire community, a leader, or an individual. Humans make mistakes. But even a sin that is committed by mistake requires some act of atonement. People still feel guilty when they do harm, even if they meant no harm, and so this provides a mechanism for purging the guilt and putting the act in the past. Now, in the absence of sacrifice, other means of atonement have risen in importance. Notably, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) has become the most sacred and widely observed holiday; whereas, in the Torah, Passover stands out as the first and foremost of the holidays.
3“If the anointed priest will sin, causing the people’s guilt, then he shall bring forward for his sin that he committed: a bull of the cattle, unblemished, for YHWH as a sin offering.
4:3. the anointed priest. Hebrew hakk
hn hamm
îa. This is the first occurrence of the word mîa, meaning “anointed” and commonly translated elsewhere in the Tanak as “Messiah.” In the Torah mîa always refers to the high priest and not, as it later came to mean, the king. The relationship between priest and king was always a complex one in the Tanak and in the postbiblical world as well. The judge Gideon declines to be made Israel’s first king, but he acts as a priest, which may well have involved greater power, distinction, and income (Judg 8:22–27). David makes some of his sons priests (2Sam 8:18). The Hasmoneans (Maccabees) were initially high priests but later were simultaneously priests and kings.
4And he shall bring the bull to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting in front of YHWH. And he shall lay his hand on the bull’s head and slaughter the bull in front of YHWH.
5And the anointed priest shall take some of the bull’s blood and bring it to the Tent of Meeting.
6And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of the blood seven times in front of YHWH before the pavilion of the Holy.
4:6. the pavilion of the Holy. The pavilion (prket) is over the Holy of Holies, the inner part of the Tabernacle, not over the Holy, the outer part. So why is it called “the pavilion of the Holy” here As in Lev 16:2, “the Holy” can refer generally to the holiness that is inside the Holiest of Holies.
7And the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of the incense of fragrances, in front of YHWH, which is in the Tent of Meeting. And he shall spill all of the bull’s blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
8And he shall take off all the fat of the bull of the sin offering from it: the fat that covers the innards and all the fat that is on the innards
9and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, that is on the loins; and the lobe on the liver: he shall take it away with the kidneys
10when it will be taken off from the ox of the peace-offering sacrifice. And the priest shall burn them to smoke on the altar of burnt offering.
11And the bull’s skin and all of its meat with its head and with its legs and its innards and its dung:
12and he shall bring all of the bull outside the camp, to a pure place, to the place where ash is spilled, and burn it on wood in fire. It shall be burned at the place where ash is spilled.
13“And if all the congregation of Israel will make a mistake, and something will be hidden from the community’s eyes, and they do one of any of YHWH’s commandments that are not to be done, and they are guilty,
14and the sin over which they have sinned will become known, then the community shall bring forward a bull of the cattle as a sin offering, and they shall bring it in front of the Tent of Meeting.
15And the community’s elders shall lay their hands on the bull’s head in front of YHWH, and he shall slaughter the bull in front of YHWH.
16And the anointed priest shall bring some of the bull’s blood to the Tent of Meeting.
17And the priest shall dip his finger from the blood and sprinkle seven times in front of YHWH before the pavilion.
18And he shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar that is in front of YHWH, that is in the Tent of Meeting, and he shall spill all of the blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
19And he shall take off all of its fat from it and burn it to smoke at the altar.
20And he shall do to the bull as he did to the bull of the sin offering. So he shall do to it. And the priest shall make atonement over them, and it will be forgiven for them.
21And he shall bring the bull outside the camp and burn it as he burned the first bull. It is the community’s sin offering.
22“When a chieftain will sin and do one of any of the commandments of YHWH, his God, that are not to be done, by mistake, and he is guilty,
4:22. chieftain. Hebrew n
î’. Elsewhere in the Torah the word refers to the chieftain of a tribe (Num 2:3–29) or of a priestly family (Num 3:24–35) or of a city (Gen 34:2). Here it may allude to a king of Israel, “a chieftain among your people” (as in 1 Kings 11:34; Ezek 34:24), or it may mean any of these leaders.
23or his sin by which he has sinned has been made known to him, then he shall bring his offering, a goat, male, unblemished.
24And he shall lay his hand on the goat’s head and slaughter it at the place where he would slaughter a burnt offering in front of YHWH. It is a sin offering.
25And the 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 he shall spill its blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering.
26And he shall burn all its fat to smoke at the altar like the fat of the peace-offering sacrifice. And the priest shall make atonement over him from his sin, and it will be forgiven for him.
27“And if one person from the people of the land will sin by mistake by doing one of YHWH’s commandments that are not to be done and is guilty,
28or his sin that he has committed has been made known to him, then he shall bring his offering, a goat, unblemished, female, for his sin that he committed.
29And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter the sin offering at the place of burnt offering.
30And the 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 spill all its blood at the base of the altar.
31And he shall take away all of its fat as the fat was taken away from on the peace-offering sacrifice, and the priest shall burn it to smoke at the altar as a pleasant smell to YHWH, and the priest shall make atonement over him, and it will be forgiven for him.
32“And if he will bring a lamb as his offering for a sin offering, he shall bring a female, unblemished.
33And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it as a sin offering at the place where he would slaughter a burnt offering.
34And the 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 he shall spill all its blood at the base of the altar.
35And he shall take away all of its fat as the sheep’s fat was taken away from the peace-offering sacrifice, and the priest shall burn them to smoke at the altar with YHWH’s offerings by fire, and the priest shall make atonement over him, over his sin that he committed, and it will be forgiven for him.
