Leviticus 4

Leviticus 4:1-2

Leviticus 4:1 f. General Statement.—These sins are committed “through error” (RVm), when the “sinner” thinks that he is doing something else, or does not know that what he is doing is wrong; i.e. to us, they are not “sins” at all. Cf. Leviticus 4:22, Numbers 15:24-29, Joshua 20:3, and contrast the phrase, sinning “with a high hand,” i.e. deliberately (Numbers 15:30; cf. penalties in Leviticus 20:2 ff.); for this, only excommunication or death is possible.

Leviticus 4:3-12

Leviticus 4:3-12. Sin Offering of the High Priest.—Inadvertences at the altar, which would, if unatoned for, have the most dangerous consequences for the whole community. The “anointed” priest is the High Priest (Leviticus 6:22, Leviticus 8:12; Leviticus 8:30, Leviticus 21:10). He is the representative of the whole people; his guilt or error is therefore theirs. There is no choice of animals here, as in Leviticus 3. The chief part of the rite is the presentation of the blood, the life of the animal, to Yahweh.

It is brought to the tent of meeting, i.e. the actual shrine of the sanctuary, where alone Yahweh “meets” with the priest. The more important the offence and the offerer, the nearer the blood must be brought to Yahweh; hence, in this case, sprinkling on the altar would not be enough. The priest stands with the blood inside the outer compartment of the shrine, and sprinkles the blood upon the curtain that separates the outer from the inner compartment—the latter being regarded as the special abode of the Shekinah, or glory of Yahweh on earth. (For the seven-fold sprinkling, cf. Joshua 6:15, 2 Kings 5:10.) The analogy with the special rite of Leviticus 16 is clear; but nothing is said in Leviticus 16 of the altar of incense; in Exodus 30:10, the sprinkling on the altar of incense is mentioned in connexion with the Day of Atonement, but its use is restricted to that rite. Probably, therefore, unlike the altar, it was within the shrine. Not even the priests may eat of this sacrifice; they are involved in the “sin.” The duty of burning the carcase belongs to the High Priest himself; but in the text of the LXX and Sam. it is assigned to the priests.

The “clean place” to which the carcase is taken may possibly be a euphemism.

Leviticus 4:13-21

Leviticus 4:13-21. The Sin Offering for the Whole Congregation.—The offering is the same as for the priest, but the elders, as acting for the congregation or assembly, are to lay hands on the victim. These elders are not elsewhere mentioned in P. Some of the ritual directions are here omitted (Leviticus 4:8 f., Leviticus 4:11), but the significant clause is added that by the offering the people have atonement made for them, and they are forgiven. The formula for sin in Leviticus 4:13 is a quite general one, and the word used for “forgive” is not peculiarly ritual in its use; but it is difficult to see what sins could be committed by the congregation as a whole save ritual ones; and this is borne out by the words “when (it) is known.” Such a sin as that of Achan (Joshua 7), though it involved the whole nation in its consequences, was punished in a very different way. What if such a “sin” never became known?

It was covered on the Day of Atonement. In Leviticus 5:3, however, the guilt is said to follow on the discovery of the unintentional wrong-doing. Contrast this ritual with that of Num 15:24 ff.

Leviticus 4:22-26

Leviticus 4:22-26. The Sin Offering tor a Ruler, or tribal chief or representative. The word is also used of the one chief of the nation in post-exilic writers when the succession of kings had come to an end. It would apply to Nehemiah, or perhaps to a foreign ruler like the Persian Bagoas, governor of Jerusalem in 402 B.C. The offering is a goat instead of a bullock, and its blood is only smeared on the horns of the altar, not sprinkled, and, as it would seem, by an ordinary priest, not the High Priest.

Leviticus 4:27-35

Leviticus 4:27-35. The Laymen’s Sin Offering.—The victim is here either a goat or a lamb—the offerer could apparently choose which, and in each case a female. In other points the ritual is the same. For “common people” RVm is better. The phrase is used in the histories for the people as a whole or the popular party in opposition to the court. In Ezra it denotes the semi-heathen population surviving after the return from exile. Cf. John 7:49.