Leviticus 4:23-28

4:23 or his sin that he committed ¹  is made known to him, ²  he must bring a flawless male goat as his offering. ³  4:24 He must lay his hand on the head of the male goat and slaughter ⁴  it in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered before the Lord – it is a sin offering. 4:25 Then the priest must take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and he must pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering. 4:26 Then the priest ⁵  must offer all of its fat up in smoke on the altar like the fat of the peace offering sacrifice. So the priest will make atonement ⁶  on his behalf for ⁷  his sin and he will be forgiven. ⁸ 

For the Common Person

4:27 “‘If an ordinary individual ⁹  sins by straying unintentionally ¹⁰  when he violates one of the Lord’s commandments which must not be violated, ¹¹  and he pleads guilty 4:28 or his sin that he committed ¹²  is made known to him, ¹³  he must bring a flawless female goat ¹⁴  as his offering for the sin ¹⁵  that he committed.

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¹ tn Heb “or his sin which he sinned in it is made known to him”; NAB “if he learns of the sin he committed.”

² tn Lev 4:22b-23a is difficult. The present translation suggests that there are two possible legal situations envisioned, separated by the Hebrew אוֹ (’o, “or”) at the beginning of v. 23. Lev 4:22b refers to any case in which the leader readily admits his guilt (i.e., “pleads guilty”), whereas v. 23a refers to cases where the leader is convicted of his guilt by legal action (“his sin…is made known to him”). See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:95-96; Lev 4:27-28; and esp. the notes on Lev 5:1 below.

³ tn Heb “a he-goat of goats, a male without defect”; cf. NLT “with no physical defects.”

⁴ tn The LXX has a plural form here and also for the same verb later in the verse. See the note on Lev 1:5a.

⁵ tn Heb “Then he”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. Based on the parallel statements in 4:10 and 4:31, it is the priest who performs this action rather than the person who brought the offering.

⁶ sn The focus of sin offering “atonement” was purging impurities from the tabernacle (see the note on Lev 1:4).

⁷ tn Heb “from.” In this phrase the preposition מִן (min) may be referring to the reason or cause (“on account of, because of”; GKC 383 §119.z). As J. E. Hartley (Leviticus [WBC], 47) points out, “from” may refer to the removal of the sin, but is an awkward expression. Hartley also suggests that the phrasing might be “an elliptical expression for יְכַפֵּר עַל־לְטַהֵר אֶת־מִן, ‘he will make expiation for…to cleanse…from…,’ as in 16:30.”

⁸ tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him” (KJV similar).

⁹ tn Heb “an individual from the people of the land”; cf. NASB “anyone of the common people” (KJV, ASV both similar); NAB “a private person.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “If one person sins by straying, from the people of the land.” See Lev 4:2 for a note on “straying.”

¹¹ tn Heb “by doing it, one from the commandments of the Lord which must not be done.”

¹² tn Heb “or his sin which he sinned is made known to him”; cf. NCV “when that person learns about his sin.”

¹³ tn Lev 4:27b-28a is essentially the same as 4:22b-23a (see the notes there).

¹⁴ tn Heb “a she-goat of goats, a female without defect”; NAB “an unblemished she-goat.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “on his sin.”