Leviticus 4:1-5
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 4
Purification Offerings. 1 The Lord said to Moses: 2 (A)Tell the Israelites: When a person inadvertently[a] does wrong by violating any one of the Lord’s prohibitions—
For the Anointed Priest. 3 If it is the anointed priest[b] who thus does wrong and thereby makes the people guilty, he shall offer to the Lord an unblemished bull of the herd as a purification offering for the wrong he committed. 4 Bringing the bull to the entrance of the tent of meeting, before the Lord, he shall lay his hand on its head(B) and slaughter it before the Lord. 5 [c]The anointed priest shall then take some of the bull’s blood and bring it into the tent of meeting,
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- 4:2 Inadvertently: the concern in this chapter, and much of chap. 5, is wrongs done unintentionally. Intentional (“high-handed”) sins are punished with being “cut off” from the people (Nm 15:30–31). See note on Lv 7:20. Lord’s prohibitions: not included in the faults figured here is failure to perform positive commandments. Failing to perform positive commands, however, still renders the individual liable to other punishment (e.g., failing to observe the Passover, Nm 9:13). Cf. Nm 15:22–31.
- 4:3 The anointed priest: the chapter presents four cases of inadvertent wrong, arranged in descending order according to the status of the wrongdoer: high priest (vv. 3–12), entire community (vv. 13–21), tribal leader (vv. 22–26), and general populace (vv. 27–35). The higher one’s position, the more deeply the sin affects the sanctuary (vv. 5–7, 17–18 versus vv. 25, 29, 34). See note on 16:6. Purification offering: the Hebrew verb ḥiṭṭē’ means “remove sin, purify” (Lv 8:15; Ez 43:20–23; 45:18–19; cf. Ex 29:36). The offering cleansed the various places to which the blood was applied or the rooms in which it was sprinkled.
- 4:5–7 On the structure of the sanctuary, see Ex 26–27.
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