Chapter Five

1–13. Certain particular kinds of sins that are expiated by the sin offering. 14–19. The guilt offering.

Leviticus 5:1. If anyone sins by hearing the voice of a curse and being a witness, or seeing, or knowing about it, but does not report it, then he shall bear his guilt. Leviticus 5:2. Or if anyone touches anything unclean, or the carcass of an unclean beast, or the carcass of unclean livestock, or the carcass of an unclean creeping thing, but was not aware of it, then he is unclean and guilty. Leviticus 5:3. Or if anyone touches human uncleanness, whatever uncleanness it may be by which one becomes unclean, and was not aware of it, but then becomes aware, then he is guilty. Leviticus 5:4. Or if anyone swears rashly with his lips to do something evil or good, whatever it is that a person swears about rashly, but was not aware of it, but later becomes aware, then he is guilty of that. Leviticus 5:5. If he is guilty of any of these, and confesses in what he has sinned, Three cases of sinful action are indicated: 1) refusal to testify to the truth in certain criminal matters – concealment or hiding of another’s crime; 2) defilement by corpse uncleanness or another (Lev 5:2-3) and 3) rash, thoughtless oath (Lev 5:4-5). In all these cases, if the sinful or defiling action, at the moment of its commission, was not recognized as such, and was recognized in its true character only afterward (in cases of those deliberately known defilements, necessitated by circumstance, which required not sacrifices but purifications – washings, Lev 11-15), a sin offering was brought, with a proper confession of the sin committed by the guilty party.

Leviticus 5:6. Then he shall bring to the Lord for his sin an offering for guilt consisting of one of the flock, a female sheep or a goat, for a sin offering, and the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin. The Hebrew term ascham, guilt, serves technically for designating the guilt offering (see Lev 5 and others), just as chattath also simultaneously means both sin and the sin offering. The passage speaks properly of the sin offering, chattath, but the sin itself is named with the term ascham: the closeness of both concepts is undeniable, though, as we shall see below, the independence of both offerings is also beyond doubt (contrary to the opinion, for example, of Clericus), and determining the differences between both offerings in their significance is rather difficult. Since in all the enumerated cases (Lev 5:1-4) the sins of a private individual are in view, then, according to Lev 4:28-32, in these cases a female sheep or a goat is brought for the sin.

Leviticus 5:7. But if he cannot afford a sheep, then he shall bring to the Lord as his guilt offering for his sin two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering; Leviticus 5:8. He shall bring them to the priest, and the priest shall present first that one of these birds which is for the sin offering, and he shall wring its head off from its neck, but shall not sever it completely; Leviticus 5:9. And he shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar, and the rest of the blood he shall drain out at the base of the altar: this is a sin offering; Leviticus 5:10. And with the other he shall make a burnt offering according to the prescribed procedure; and so the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed, and it shall be forgiven him. Leviticus 5:11. But if he cannot afford two turtledoves or two young pigeons, then he shall bring as his offering for what he has sinned a tenth of an ephah of fine wheat flour for a sin offering; he shall not put oil on it, nor put frankincense on it, for it is a sin offering; Laws concerning the expiation of sins through sacrifices apply to all the people of Israel – both to the rich and to the poor. For the latter, the lawgiver appointed less valuable materials in everyday use: birds or even simply flour, and in a sin offering, which expressed the condition of separation from God, neither oil – that symbol of the grace of the Holy Spirit and the condition of grace and peace – nor frankincense, which signified prayer ascending to God (compare Num 5:15), could be used: only one reconciled with God had the right to bring these gifts. Reconciliation or propitiation of God was accomplished through the sin offering; after it, the offerer brought a burnt offering, a peace offering, and a bloodless offering, at which both mentioned additional substances were present.

Leviticus 5:14. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Leviticus 5:15. If anyone commits a transgression and sins unintentionally against the holy things of the Lord, then let him bring his guilt offering to the Lord from the flock, a ram without blemish, valued by you in silver shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary, as a guilt offering; Leviticus 5:16. And he shall make restitution for the holy thing in which he has sinned, and shall add to it a fifth part and give it to the priest, and the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and it shall be forgiven him. Leviticus 5:17. If anyone sins and does any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, and becomes guilty unintentionally and shall bear his guilt, Leviticus 5:18. Then he shall bring to the priest a ram without blemish from the flock as a guilt offering, valued by you, and the priest shall make atonement for him for the error which he committed unintentionally, and it shall be forgiven him. Leviticus 5:19. This is the guilt offering, by which he has incurred guilt before the Lord. The end of chapter 5, Lev 5:14-19, is connected with the beginning of chapter 6. Lev 6:1-7 (in the Hebrew Bible the first seven verses Lev 6 are assigned to the end Lev 5, so that with Lev 5:14-19 they form a continuous whole: indeed, the unity of both sections in subject matter would have required their combination into one whole, rather than their division into two chapters, as in the LXX translation, in the Vulgate, in the Slavic and Russian). The independence and distinction of the guilt offering, ascham, from the sin offering, chattath, are evident not only from the different rites of both, determined in the law (guilt offering: Lev 5:14-19, sin offering: Lev 4:1-35), but from the fact that in certain cases both sin and guilt offerings were prescribed to be brought together (for example Num 6:12). But the distinction between them in significance in ancient and modern times has been defined more or less unsatisfactorily, for example, sin offering – for sins of commission, guilt offering – for sins of omission: the first for sins against positive commandments, the second against prohibitions; the first for sins known to other people, the second for hidden or secret sins. Perhaps closer to the truth would be such a differentiation of the atoning sacrifices in question: the sin offering is repeatedly brought for the entire community, for all the people (Lev 16; Num 19); the guilt offering is always a sacrifice only of private individuals for their individual sins; in the first, the moral criterion predominates and the idea of evangelical forgiveness of sins, expiatio, in the latter, the idea of retaliation or recompense for a violation committed by a human being toward God or people predominates, the guilt offering generally has the character of a predominantly ceremonial-disciplinary nature.

Leviticus 5:17. If anyone sins and does any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, and becomes guilty unintentionally and shall bear his guilt, Leviticus 5:18. Then he shall bring to the priest a ram without blemish from the flock as a guilt offering, valued by you, and the priest shall make atonement for him for the error which he committed unintentionally, and it shall be forgiven him. (See Lev 5:19). Clearly, another case is indicated, a case of a general character, the guilt of a member of the theocratic community against the Lord. Tradition assigned to this category all cases where doubt arose concerning the lawfulness of some action. This category included, for example, the transgression of Jewish priests after the captivity, who took foreign women as wives and, on the instruction of Ezra, brought a guilt offering for their purification (Ezra 10:19). Subcategories of this category were guilt offerings by a recovering leper (Lev 14:12 and following) and a defiled Nazirite (Num 6:12 and following).

Chapter Five

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