1And when a soul shall sin, and he heard the voice of an oath, and he a witness, if he saw or knew; if he shall not announce, he bore his sin. 2Or when a soul shall touch upon any unclean thing, if upon a carcase of an unclean beast, or upon the carcase of unclean cattle, or upon the carcase of an unclean creeping thing, and it was hidden from him: and he is unclean and guilty. 3Or when he shall touch upon the uncleanness of man, for all uncleanness which he shall be unclean in it, and it was hidden from him; and he shall know, and be guilty. 4Or when a soul shall swear to talk idly with his lips for evil, or for good, for all which the man shall talk idly with an oath, and it was hid from him; and he shall know, and be guilty for one from these. 5And it was when he shall be guilty for one from these, and he shall confess that he sinned upon it 6And he brought his trespass to Jehovah for his sin which he sinned, a female from the sheep, a lamb or she goat of the goats, for the sin; and the priest expiated for him from his sin, 7And if his hand shall not reach the sufficiency of a sheep, and he brought his trespass which he sinned, two turtledoves, or two sons of a dove, to Jehovah; one for the sin, and one for the burnt-offering. 8And he brought them to the priest, and he brought near that for the sin first, and broke off its head from the front of its neck; and he shall not divide. 9And he sprinkled from the blood of the sin upon the wall of the altar; and that remaining of the blood he shall press out at the foundation of the altar: it is sin. 10And the second he shall make a burnt-offering according to the judgment: and the priest expiated for him from his sin which he sinned, and it was forgiven to him. 11And if his hand shall not reach to the two turtle-doves, or to the two sons of a dove; and he brought his offering who sinned, the tenth of the ephah of fine flour for the sin; he shall not put oil upon it, and he shall not give frankincense upon it; for it is sin. 12And he brought it to the priest, and the priest pressed from it his hand full, its memorial, and burnt upon the altar for sacrifices to Jehovah: it is sin. 13And the priest shall expiate for him for his sin which he sinned, from one from these; and it was forgiven to him: and it was to the priest for a gift. 14And Jehovah will speak to Moses, saying, 15When a soul shall cover transgression and sin in erring from the holy things of Jehovah; and he brought his trespass to Jehovah, a blameless ram from the sheep, by thy estimation of shekels of silver, by the shekel of the holy place, for the trespass. 16And what he sinned from the holy place he shall recompense, and he shall add its fifth upon it, and he gave it to the priest: and the priest shall expiate for him with the ram of the trespass, and it was forgiven to him. 17And if a soul shall sin and do one from all the commands of Jehovah which shall not be done; and he knew not, and he was guilty, and bore his sin. 18And he brought a blameless ram from the sheep, by thy estimation, for the trespass to the priest; and the priest expiated for him for his error which he erred and he knew not; and it was forgiven to him. 19It is guilt: being guilty, he trespassed to Jehovah.
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary 1 I. The offences here supposed are, 1. A man's concealing the truth when he was sworn as a witness to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Judges among the Jews had power to adjure not only the witnesses, as with us, but the person suspected (contrary to a rule of our law, that no man is bound to accuse himself), as appears by the high priest adjuring our Saviour, who thereupon answered, though before he stood silent,
Matt 26:63,
Matt 26:64. Now (
Lev 5:1),
If a soul sin (that is, a person, for the soul is the man), if he
hear the voice of swearing (that is, if he be adjured to testify what he knows, by an
oath of the Lord upon him,
1Kgs 8:31), if in such a case, for fear of offending one that either has been his friend or may be his enemy, he refuses to give evidence, or gives it but in part,
he shall bear his iniquity. And that is a heavy burden, which, if some course be not taken to get it removed, will sink a man to the lowest hell. He that
heareth cursing (that is, that is thus adjured) and betrayeth it not (that is, stifles his evidence, and does not utter it), he is a partner with the sinner, and
hateth his own soul; see
Prov 29:24. Let all that are called out at any time to bear testimony think of this law, and be free and open in their evidence, and take heed of prevaricating. An oath of the Lord is a sacred thing, and not to be dallied with. 2. A man's touching any thing that was ceremonially unclean,
Lev 5:2,
Lev 5:3. If a man, polluted by such touch, came into the sanctuary inconsiderately, or if he neglected to wash himself according to the law, then he was to look upon himself as under guilt, and must bring his offering. Though his touching the unclean thing contracted only a ceremonial defilement, yet his neglect to wash himself according to the law was such an instance either of carelessness or contempt as contracted a moral guilt. If at first it be
hidden from him, yet when he knows it he
shall be guilty. Note, As soon as ever God by his Spirit convinces our consciences of any sin or duty we must immediately set in with the conviction, and prosecute it, as those that are not ashamed to own our former mistake. 3. Rash swearing. If a man binds himself by an oath that he will do or not do such a thing, and the performance of his oath afterwards proves either unlawful or impracticable, by which he is discharged from the obligation, yet he must bring an offering to atone for his fully in swearing so rashly, as David that he would kill Nabal. And then it was that he must
say before the angel that it
was an error, Qoh 5:6.
He shall be guilty in one of these (
Lev 5:4), guilty if he do not perform his oath, and yet, if the matter of it were evil, guilty if he do. Such wretched dilemmas as these do some men bring themselves into by their own rashness and folly; go which way they will their consciences are wounded, sin stares them in the face, so sadly are they
snared in the words of their mouth. A more sad dilemma this is than that of the lepers, If we sit still, we die; if we stir, we die. Wisdom and watchfulness beforehand would prevent these straits.
II. Now in these cases, 1. The offender must confess his sin and bring his offering (
Lev 5:5,
Lev 5:6); and the offering was not accepted unless it was accompanied with a penitential confession and a humble prayer for pardon. Observe, The confession must be particular,
that he hath sinned in that thing; such was David's confession (
Pss 51:4),
I have done this evil; and Achan's (
Josh 7:20),
Thus and thus have I done. Deceit lies in generals; many will own in general they have sinned, for that all must own, so that it is not any particular reproach to them; but that they have sinned
in this thing they stand too much upon their honour to acknowledge: but the way to be well assured of pardon, and to be well armed against sin for the future, is to be particular in our penitent confessions. 2. The priest must
make atonement for him. As the atonement was not accepted without his repentance, so his repentance would not justify him without the atonement. Thus, in our reconciliation to God, Christ's part and ours are both needful.
7 Provision is here made for the poor of God's people, and the pacifying of their consciences under the sense of guilt. Those that were not able to bring a lamb might bring for a sin-offering a pair of
turtle-doves or
two young pigeons; nay, if any were so extremely poor that they were not able to procure these so often as they would have occasion, they might bring a pottle of fine flour, and this should be accepted. Thus the expense of the sin-offering was brought lower than that of any other offering, to teach us that no man's poverty shall ever be a bar in the way of his pardon. The poorest of all may have atonement made for them, if it be not their own fault. Thus the poor are evangelized; and no man shall say that he had not wherewithal to bear the charges of a journey to heaven. Now,
I. If the sinner brought two doves, one was to be offered for a sin-offering and the other for a burnt-offering,
Lev 5:7. Observe, 1. Before he offered the burnt-offering, which was for the honour and praise of God, he must offer the sin-offering, to make atonement. We must first see to it that our peace be made with God, and then we may expect that our services for his glory will be accepted. The sin-offering must make way for the burnt-offering. 2. After the sin-offering, which made atonement, came the burnt-offering, as an acknowledgment of the great mercy of God in appointing and accepting the atonement.
II. If he brought fine flour, a handful of it was to be offered, but without either oil or frankincense (
Lev 5:11), not only because this would make it too costly for the poor, for whose comfort this sacrifice was appointed, but because it was a sin-offering, and therefore, to show the loathsomeness of the sin for which it was offered, it must not be made grateful either to the taste by oil or to the smell by frankincense. The unsavouriness of the offering was to intimate that the sinner must never relish his sin again as he had done. God by these sacrifices did speak, 1. Comfort to those that had offended, that they might not despair, nor pine away in their iniquity; but, peace being thus made for them with God, they might have peace in him. 2. Caution likewise not to offend any more, remembering what an expensive troublesome thing it was to make atonement.
14 Hitherto in this chapter orders were given concerning those sacrifices that were both sin-offerings and trespass-offerings, for they go by both names,
Lev 5:6. Here we have the law concerning those that were properly and peculiarly
trespass-offerings, which were offered to atone for trespasses done against a neighbour, those sins we commonly call trespasses. Now injuries done to another may be either in holy things or in common things; of the former we have the law in these verses; of the latter in the beginning of the next chapter. If a man
did harm (as it is
Lev 5:16)
in the holy things of the Lord, he thereby committed a trespass against the priests, the Lord's ministers, who were entrusted with the care of these holy things, and had the benefit of them. Now if a man did alienate or convert to his own use any thing that was dedicated to God, unwittingly, he was to bring this sacrifice; as suppose he had ignorantly made use of the tithes, or first-fruits, or first-born of his cattle, or (which, it should seem by
Lev 22:14-
Lev 22:16, is principally meant here) had eaten any of those parts of the sacrifices which were appropriated to the priests; this was a trespass. It is supposed to be done through mistake, or forgetfulness, for want either of care or zeal; for if it was done presumptuously, and in contempt of the law, the offender died without mercy,
Hebre 10:28. But in case of negligence and ignorance this sacrifice was appointed; and Moses is told, 1. What must be done in case the trespass appeared to be certain. The trespasser must bring an offering to the Lord, which, in all those that were purely trespass-offerings, must be a
ram without blemish, of the second year, say the Jewish doctors. He must likewise make restitution to the priest, according to a just estimation of the thing which he had so alienated, adding a fifth part to it, that he might learn to take more heed next time of embezzling what was sacred to God, finding to his cost that there was nothing got by it, and that he paid dearly for his oversights. 2. What must be done in case it were doubtful whether he had trespassed or no; he had cause to suspect it, but he
wist it not (
Lev 5:17), that is, he was not very certain; in this case, because it is good to be sure, he must bring his trespass-offering, and the value of that which he feared he had embezzled, only he was not to add the fifth part to it. Now this was designed to show the very great evil there is in sacrilege. Achan, that was guilty of it presumptuously, died for it; so did Ananias and Sapphira. But this goes further to show the evil of it, that if a man had, through mere ignorance, and unwittingly, alienated the holy things, nay, if he did but suspect that he had done so, he must be at the expense, not only of a full restitution with interest, but of an offering, with the trouble of bringing it, and must take shame to himself, by making confession of it; so bad a thing is it to invade God's property, and so cautious should we be to abstain from all appearances of this evil. We are also taught here to be jealous over ourselves with a godly jealousy, to ask pardon for the sin, and make satisfaction for the wrong, which we do but suspect ourselves guilty of. In doubtful cases we should take and keep the safer side.