In the first month, &c., thou shalt take a young bullock These words are directed to the prince, who is commanded, on the first day of the new year, (which, according to the ecclesiastical computation, began with the month Nisan, and answers to our 10th of March: see Exodus 12:2,) to provide a bullock for a burnt-offering to cleanse the temple from any defilement it might have contracted, by the people's offering their sacrifices, or coming into any of the courts belonging to it, while they were under any legal pollution. And the priest shall take of the blood, &c. The office of the priest is here distinguished from that of the prince: the prince was to provide the sacrifices, and the priest to offer them. So shalt thou do the seventh day for every one that erreth For all the errors of all the house of Israel through ignorance. There were particular sacrifices appointed for sins of ignorance, whether of private persons or of the whole congregation, Leviticus 4:13. So shall ye reconcile the house
Cleanse it from any pollution it may have contracted through the ignorance of any of the common people.