The Prince's Responsibility For Cleansing the Sanctuary and The People at the New Year.
‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh, “In the first month, on the first day of the month, you will take a young bullock without blemish, and you will cleanse the sanctuary. And the priest will take of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the house, and on the four corners of the settle of the altar, and on the posts of the gate of the inner court. And so shall you do on the seventh day of the month for every one who errs and for every one who is ignorant. So shall you make atonement for the house.” '
The first responsibility of the prince is to ensure the fitness for worship of the earthly sanctuary. Each new year's day, that is of the ancient religious new year commencing around March/April at the new moon, this had to be cleansed by the sin offering of a young bullock without blemish on the first and seventh day. The priest would then take the blood of the bullock and put it on the doorposts of the house, that is of the sanctuary where the offering was made, and on the four corners of the settle of the altar (compare Ezekiel 43:20) on which the offering was offered, and on the posts of the gate of the inner court. This would cleanse the sanctuary for another year. That there would be such a sanctuary was clear from the building of the altar under Yahweh's instructions (Ezekiel 43:18).
‘And so shall you do on the seventh day of the month for every one who errs and for every one who is ignorant.' As with the cleansing of the altar (Ezekiel 43:26) this cleansing required a seven day period, although in this case not specifically daily. The sin offering, probably in both cases, was for sins of error (Leviticus 4:2; Leviticus 4:13; Leviticus 4:22; Leviticus 4:27; Numbers 15:22-29) and sins of ignorance (Leviticus 5:17) for the whole people. Both are in contrast with ‘sins with a high hand' (Numbers 15:30). This was seemingly an innovation, a further reminder of their continual need to be cleansed from sin. It would be a constant reminder in the future of how Israel had previously failed in their history to learn the lesson of the New Year sacrifice.