Leviticus 5:1-13--Laws For Sin Offerings (CONT.)

Leviticus 5:1-13
English Standard Version

5 “If anyone sins in that he hears a public adjuration to testify, and though he is a witness, whether he has seen or come to know the matter, yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity; 2 or if anyone touches an unclean thing, whether a carcass of an unclean wild animal or a carcass of unclean livestock or a carcass of unclean swarming things, and it is hidden from him and he has become unclean, and he realizes his guilt; 3 or if he touches human uncleanness, of whatever sort the uncleanness may be with which one becomes unclean, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it, and realizes his guilt; 4 or if anyone utters with his lips a rash oath to do evil or to do good, any sort of rash oath that people swear, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it, and he realizes his guilt in any of these; 5 when he realizes his guilt in any of these and confesses the sin he has committed, 6 he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation for the sin that he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin.

7 “But if he cannot afford a lamb, then he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation for the sin that he has committed two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. 8 He shall bring them to the priest, who shall offer first the one for the sin offering. He shall wring its head from its neck but shall not sever it completely, 9 and he shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar, while the rest of the blood shall be drained out at the base of the altar; it is a sin offering. 10 Then he shall offer the second for a burnt offering according to the rule. And the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin that he has committed, and he shall be forgiven.

​11 “But if he cannot afford two turtledoves or two pigeons, then he shall bring as his offering for the sin that he has committed a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering. He shall put no oil on it and shall put no frankincense on it, for it is a sin offering. 12 And he shall bring it to the priest, and the priest shall take a handful of it as its memorial portion and burn this on the altar, on the Lord's food offerings; it is a sin offering. 13 Thus the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed in any one of these things, and he shall be forgiven. And the remainder shall be for the priest, as in the grain offering.”

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Now for some more specific types of sin offerings.  The first has to do with someone's failure to testify when they have evidence or testimony pertinent to a trial where the authorities have publicly asked for anyone with information to come forward and testify.  This is is a sin that must be atoned for with a sin offering of a female lamb or goat from the man's flock.  This appears to be the only volitional sin so far in which a sin offering can be made.

Similarly, if a man touches the carcass of a dead animal or anything else unclean (presumably accidently) then a similar sin offering of a female lamb or goat from the man's flock may be made.  This is the same atonement that must be made for uttering a rash oath for a man should need to swear by no one or nothing else but simply let his "yes" be "yes" and his "no" be "no" and anything else is sin (see Matthew 5:37).  All of these things are sins that were committed accidently or rashly without premeditation or intent.

If a man cannot afford a lamb or goat for any of these sin offerings because he is poor, then he may bring two turtledoves or two pigeons instead--one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering according to the rules for offering these birds as sin offerings and burnt offerings.  If however the man is so poor to not even be able to afford this, then he is to bring as a sin offering a tenth of an ephah of fine flour (about 9 1/3 cups of fine flour).  Unlike the traditional grain offering, there is to be no frankincense mixed with the flour.  A handful of the offering is to be burned as a memorial portion as a sin offering and the rest will remain for the priests as in the grain offering.  In this way every man should be able to offer sin offerings no matter how rich or poor he was, even if it might mean missing a meal because he had to give his flour that he would use to make bread for the offering.

Just think about how often you would need to be coming to make atonement and how many multiple animals you would need to sacrifice on a regular basis just for atonement for accidental sin.  We'll even see later that God has a system in place for all the sin that the people committed that they didn't even realize they committed so that atonement would be made for that once a year (we'll talk about that when we get to The Day of Atonement).  Aren't you glad that the blood of Jesus is better than the blood of bulls and goats? (Hebrews 9:13-14, Hebrews 10:1-18)