Scripture Daily

Context No. 78 of 4322 · Leviticus

Context · Reflection

Leviticus 4:22-26: in context

22“‘When a ruler sins, and unwittingly does any one of all the things which the LORD his God has commanded not to be done, and is guilty, 23if his sin in which he has sinned is made known to him, he shall bring as his offering a goat, a male without defect. 24He shall lay his hand on the head of the goat, and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering before the LORD. It is a sin offering. 25The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering. He shall pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering. 26All its fat he shall burn on the altar, like the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings; and the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin, and he will be forgiven.

Leviticus 4 works through the sin offering, the sacrifice for wrongs done unintentionally, and it goes down the social ladder one rung at a time. First the anointed priest, then the whole congregation, then this: when a ruler sins. Then, in the next section, the common person.

The structure is the argument. Each rank has its own procedure and its own animal, and the ruler's is a male goat, brought when his sin is made known to him. He lays his hand on its head himself, and it is killed where the burnt offering is killed. Blood goes on the horns of the altar, the fat is burned, and the priest makes atonement for him, and he is forgiven.

Two things stand out. A ruler is assumed to sin, with a standing procedure for it, written in advance. And the sin in view is the unintentional kind, the wrong he did not know he was doing until someone told him. The law does not treat unawareness as innocence. It treats it as something that still requires an offering once the man finds out. When I learn I have harmed someone without meaning to, do I treat not having meant it as the end of the matter?

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