Leviticus 4:2–3

Footnotes

1. 2 Heb “And a person, when he sins in straying.” The English translation of “by straying” (בִּשְׁגָגָה [bishgagah] literally, “in going astray; in making an error”) varies greatly, but almost all suggest that this term refers to sins that were committed by mistake or done not knowing that the particular act was sinful (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [], 1:). See, e.g., “involuntarily”; . “by neglect”; “through ignorance”; , , “unwittingly”; , , , “unintentionally”; , “inadvertently”; “by accident.” However, we know from Num 15:27–31 that committing a sin “by straying” is the opposite of committing a sin “defiantly” (i.e., בְּיַד רָמָה [béyad ramah] “with a raised hand,” v. 30). In the latter case the person, as it were, raises his fist in presumptuous defiance against the Lord. Thus, he “blasphemes” the Lord and has “despised” his word, for which he should be “cut off from among his people” (Num 15:30–31). One could not bring an offering for such a sin. The expression here in Lev 4:2 combines “by straying” with the preposition “from” which fits naturally with “straying” (i.e., “straying from” the Lord’s commandments). For sins committed “by straying” from the commandments (Lev 4 throughout) or other types of transgressions (Lev 5:1–6) there was indeed forgiveness available through the sin offering. See R. E. Averbeck, 2:.
2. 3 This is an emphatic use of the preposition מִן (min; see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 56–57, §325).
3. 4 The “when” clause (כִּי, ki) breaks off here before its resolution, thus creating an open-ended introduction to the following subsections, which are introduced by “if” (אִם [’im] vv. 3, 13, 27, 32). Also, the last part of the verse reads literally, “which must not be done and does from one from them.”
4. 5 Heb “the anointed priest” (so , , , , ). This refers to the high priest (cf. , , ).
5. 6 Heb “to the guilt of the people”; “thus bringing guilt on the people.”
6. 7 Heb “and he shall offer on his sin which he sinned, a bull, a son of the herd, flawless.”
7. 8 The word for “sin offering” (sometimes translated “purification offering”) is the same as the word for “sin” earlier in the verse. One can tell which rendering is intended only by the context. The primary purpose of the “sin offering” (חַטָּאת, khatta’t) was to “purge” (כִּפֶּר, kipper, “to make atonement,” see 4:20, 26, 31, 35, and the notes on and esp. , ) the sanctuary or its furniture in order to cleanse it from any impurities and/or (re)consecrate it for holy purposes (see, e.g., Lev 8:15; 16:19). By making this atonement the impurities of the person or community were cleansed and the people became clean. See R. E. Averbeck, 2:.