There is no one greater in this household than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife. So how could I do ¹  such a great evil and sin against God?”

Reuben said to them, “Didn’t I say to you, ‘Don’t sin against the boy,’ but you wouldn’t listen? So now we must pay for shedding his blood!” ¹ 

¹ When ²  they journeyed from Elim, the entire company ³  of Israelites came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their exodus ⁴  from the land of Egypt.

¹ The whole community ²  of the Israelites traveled on their journey ³  from the Desert of Sin according to the Lord’s instruction, and they pitched camp in Rephidim. ⁴  Now ⁵  there was no water for the people to drink. ⁶ 

Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, ¹  that the fear of him ²  may be before you so that you do not ³  sin.”

So now go, lead the people to the place I have spoken to you about. See, ¹  my angel will go before you. But on the day that I punish, I will indeed punish them for their sin.” ² 

and said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord ¹  go among us, for we ²  are a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”

He ¹  must bring the rest of the bull outside the camp ²  and burn it just as he burned the first bull – it is the sin offering of the assembly.

He must lay his hand on the head of the male goat and slaughter ¹  it in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered before the Lord – it is a sin offering.

Then the priest ¹  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 ²  on his behalf for ³  his sin and he will be forgiven. ⁴ 

He must bring them to the priest and present first the one that is for a sin offering. The priest ¹  must pinch ²  its head at the nape of its neck, but must not sever the head from the body. ³ 

The second bird ¹  he must make a burnt offering according to the standard regulation. ²  So the priest will make atonement ³  on behalf of this person for ⁴  his sin which he has committed, and he will be forgiven. ⁵ 

It must not be baked with yeast. ¹  I have given it as their portion from my gifts. It is most holy, ²  like the sin offering and the guilt offering.

But any sin offering from which some of its blood is brought into the Meeting Tent to make atonement in the sanctuary must not be eaten. It must be burned up in the fire. ¹ 

and said to Aaron, “Take for yourself a bull calf for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, both flawless, and present them before the Lord.

The fat and the kidneys and the protruding lobe of ¹  the liver from the sin offering he offered up in smoke on the altar just as the Lord had commanded Moses,

Then he presented the people’s offering. He took the sin offering male goat which was for the people, slaughtered it, and performed a decontamination rite with it ¹  like the first one. ² 

Later Moses sought diligently for the sin offering male goat, ¹  but it had actually been burnt. ²  So he became angry at Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s remaining sons, saying,

“Why did you not eat the sin offering in the sanctuary? For it is most holy and he gave it to you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, ¹  to make atonement on their behalf before the Lord.

a sin offering and the other a burnt offering along with the grain offering. ¹  So the priest is to make atonement for the one being cleansed before the Lord.