Chapter Four

1–2. The sin offering and its ritual, differing according to the difference in the social-theocratic position of the sinning person, 3–12. of the high priest, 13–21. of the whole congregation, 22–26. of a ruler, 27–35. of a private person.

Leviticus 4:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Leviticus 4:2. speak to the sons of Israel: if any person sins unintentionally against any of the commandments of the Lord and does what ought not to be done; If the burnt offerings and peace offerings were known to the Hebrews even before the law of Moses, then the atoning offerings, or sin-cleansing offerings, the sin offerings, the guilt offerings, are the proper establishment of the law of Moses. The ordinances concerning them form a new complete section (Lev 4-7). These offerings are no longer left to the freedom and zeal of each member of the theocratic society: they are obligatory in the presence of sin, offense, subject to sacrificial purification. However, not every sin permitted such purification, but only one committed “unintentionally”, “bisdigagah”, LXX: ἀκουσίως, Aquila: ἐν αἀγνοί, Vulgate: per ignorantiam, Slavonic: “unwillingly”, that is, unintentionally due to common human weakness, but not at all with open intention not “with a high hand” (bejad ramah), Num 15:30; for the latter sins death was unconditionally appointed. The atoning offerings, according to the idea, were to develop the conscience of the Hebrews in special sensitivity to various kinds of deviations from moral duty.

Leviticus 4:3. if the anointed priest sins and brings guilt on the people, – then for his sin which he has committed, let him bring to the Lord a bull from the herd, without blemish, as a sin offering, Leviticus 4:4. and he shall bring the bull to the door of the tent of meeting before the Lord, and lay his hands on the head of the bull, and slaughter the bull before the Lord; In the ordinances concerning the sin offering (and the guilt offering) no distinction is made based on the material condition of those responsible, but according to the nature and degree of their guilt and their social-theocratic position. First in this kind of ranking stands the “anointed priest”, hakohen hammaschiach, LXX: ἀρχιερεύς, Slavonic: “archpriest, the anointed”, that is, the high priest (cf. Lev 16:32). After the high priest come: the Israelite society as a collective legal person, the ruler of the people, finally, some private person. The sin of the high priest made guilty the whole people, of which the high priest was the representative.

Leviticus 4:5. and the anointed priest shall take [that has been consecrated with full consecration,] of the blood of the bull and bring it into the tent of meeting, Leviticus 4:6. and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary; Leviticus 4:7. and the priest shall put [of the bull’s blood] before the Lord on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense, which is in the tent of meeting, and the rest of the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offerings, which is at the entrance of the tent of meeting; Leviticus 4:8. and he shall take from the bull for the sin offering all the fat, the fat that covers the internal organs, and all the fat that is on the internal organs, Leviticus 4:9. and both kidneys and the fat that is on them, which is on the loins, and the liver lobe; with the kidneys he shall remove it, Leviticus 4:10. as is removed from the bull of the peace offering; and the priest shall burn them on the altar of burnt offerings; Leviticus 4:11. and the skin of the bull and all its meat together with its head and its legs, its internal organs and its dung, From the general sacrificial ritual the sin offering differs in the manner of blood sprinkling and the consumption of sacrificial meat. In both respects significant differences exist between the first two categories of the sin offering, for the high priest and for the whole congregation, from the two latter: for a ruler of the people and for a private person. The blood of the bull slaughtered for the sin of the high priest and the whole people was brought into the sanctuary, and here a sevenfold sprinkling of it was performed in front of the veil, which separated the sanctuary from the holy of holies, then the blood was placed on the horns of the incense altar (in the second part of the tabernacle), and the remainder was poured at the base of the altar of burnt offerings (Lev 4:6-7). By this bringing of sacrificial blood into the holy place was expressed the greatness and gravity of the sin, and together the completeness of its purification (the highest purification of the sins of the whole people on the day of purification was symbolized by the bringing of the blood of the goat and the bull into the holy of holies); the sevenfold sprinkling “before the Lord” and the placing of the blood on the horns of the incense altar pointed to the latter. According to the rabbis, these are “internal” offerings (chattot penimoth), in distinction from the following sin offerings – “external” (ch. chizonoth), from which blood was not brought into the holy place. To sacrificial burning (designated, as already said, by the special Hebrew term hiqlir, in distinction from ordinary burning, saraph) in all kinds of sin offering were subjected the special sacrificial parts – fat with kidneys and liver lobe (Lev 8-10), such as were burned in the peace offering. Regarding the consumption of the remaining meat of the sin offering in Lev 6:30 a rule is laid down: “every offering from which blood is brought into the tent of meeting for purification in the sanctuary shall not be consumed; it shall be burned (tissareph – to burn not as a sacrifice) in fire” (cf. Heb 13:11-13). By this rule, in the two first cases (as well as on the day of purification, when the blood of the bull and the goat was brought into the holy of holies), after the burning on the altar of the fatty parts, the remaining meat along with the hide, head, legs, internal organs and dung was burned (not as a sacrifice) outside the camp, in a clean place (Lev 11-12). 1 In these cases the priests, being guilty (guilty by the high priest or the whole people) and being purified, had no right to eat of the sin offering, a right that (however only to the male descendants of Aaron, Lev 6:18) belonged to the priests in those cases when the sins of other private persons were purified by means of the sin offering.

Leviticus 4:13. If then the whole congregation of Israel sins unintentionally and the matter is hidden from the eyes of the assembly, and they do what is forbidden by any of the commandments of the Lord, and become guilty, Leviticus 4:14. then, when the sin they have committed becomes known, the assembly shall bring a bull from the herd as a sin offering and bring it before the tent of meeting; Leviticus 4:15. and the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before the Lord and they shall slaughter the bull before the Lord. Leviticus 4:16. And the anointed priest shall bring of the blood of the bull into the tent of meeting, Leviticus 4:17. and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood [of the bull] and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord in front of the veil [of the sanctuary], Leviticus 4:18. and he shall put blood on the horns of the altar [of fragrant incense], which is before the Lord in the tent of meeting, and the rest of the blood he shall pour at the base of the altar of burnt offerings, which is at the entrance of the tent of meeting; Leviticus 4:19. and all the fat of it he shall remove and burn on the altar; Leviticus 4:20. and do with the bull as he did with the bull of the sin offering; so shall he do with this, and the priest shall make atonement for them, and they shall be forgiven; Leviticus 4:21. and he shall bring the bull outside the camp, and burn it as he burned the former bull. This is the sin offering for the congregation. These verses, depicting the ritual of the sin offering for the whole Israelite people, in view of the close conceptual connection of this offering with the offering for the high priest, present no special features in comparison with Lev 4:5-12.

Leviticus 4:22. If a ruler sins and unintentionally does any one of the things which the Lord his God has forbidden to be done, and becomes guilty, Leviticus 4:23. then when the sin which he has committed is made known to him, let him bring as his offering a goat without blemish, Leviticus 4:24. and he shall lay his hand on the head of the goat, and slaughter it in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered before the Lord: this is a sin offering; Leviticus 4:25. and the priest shall take with his finger of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offerings, and the rest of its blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offerings; Leviticus 4:26. and all its fat he shall burn on the altar, like the fat of the peace offering, and so the priest shall make atonement for him from his sin, and he shall be forgiven. Leviticus 4:27. If any one of the people of the land sins unintentionally and does any of the things which the Lord has forbidden to be done, and becomes guilty, Leviticus 4:28. then when the sin which he has committed is made known to him, let him bring as his offering a female goat without blemish for his sin which he has committed, Leviticus 4:29. and he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering, and they shall slaughter [the goat] as a sin offering in the place [where the burnt offering is slaughtered]; Leviticus 4:30. and the priest shall take of its blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offerings, and the rest of its blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar; Leviticus 4:31. and all its fat he shall remove, as the fat is removed from the peace offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar for a pleasing aroma to the Lord; and so the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven. Leviticus 4:32. But if he brings as his offering a sheep for a sin offering, let him bring a female without blemish, Leviticus 4:33. and he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering, and slaughter it as a sin offering in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered; Leviticus 4:34. and the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offerings, and the rest of its blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar; Leviticus 4:35. and all its fat he shall remove, as the fat of the sheep of the peace offering is removed, and the priest shall burn this on the altar as an offering to the Lord; and so the priest shall make atonement for him from the sin which he has committed, and he shall be forgiven. By contrast, the sin offering of a ruler or prince (nasi – a head of a family, a judge, a leader of a thousand and the like), Lev 4:22-26, and the sin offering of a common layperson, Lev 4:27-35, being essentially alike (only in one case a male animal is brought, Lev 4:23, in the other – female, Lev 4:28), differ from the two first cases of the sin offering in both essential respects, blood sprinkling and the consumption of meat after the (identical in all cases) burning of the fat. The blood for a ruler and for any individual Israelite was not brought into the sanctuary, but simply placed on the horns of the altar of burnt offerings in the temple courtyard, and the rest of the blood was poured at the base of the altar (Lev 25:30). Regarding the use of meat in these two cases nothing is specifically stated, but from the very opposition to the two first cases and the noted rule – Lev 6:30 (cf. Heb 13:11-13), one must conclude that the meat in the two latter cases went to the priests. This is positively asserted by another rule – Lev 7:7: “as for a sin offering, so for a guilt offering, the law is one: it belongs to the priest”. In chapter 6 (Lev 6:18, according to the Hebrew text Lev 11:19-23) it is precisely and in detail determined how the priests are to consume the meat of the sin offering and how in general to treat this “great holy thing”. The basic idea of the sin offering is the pacification of the conscience of the Old Testament person at always possible and frequent deviations from “what ought to be”. * * * Notes The offering of the red heifer for the sins of Israel, Num 19, has all the characteristic features of the sin offerings of the first category.