Leviticus 5:14 to Leviticus 6:7. The Trespass or Guilt Offering. This is of two kinds, though the principle of amendment is the same. The first kind is stated vaguely; committing a trespass (the word means acting unfaithfully or treacherously; it is coupled with sinning unwittingly in Leviticus 5:15; Leviticus 5:17). The offence consists in treating what is Yahweh's as if it were not Yahweh's, i.e. in-correctness, really unintentional, connected with some offering. If not unintentional, the penalty is different (Numbers 15:30). The offerer is not said to kill the guilt offering; though elsewhere, the offerer's act of killing is carefully mentioned, and it seems to be implied in Leviticus 7:2. The second case is intentional trickery in a matter of deposit or pledge (RVm), or theft, or oppression, or keeping another's property, or falsehood; all these are trespasses against Yahweh, and as such must be atoned for by a trespass or guilt offering. This offering consists in restitution and, in the first case, amends; the restitution is a ram; the amends is one fifth of the value of the ram. In the second case, the object held back is itself restored with an addition of one-fifth of its value; and a ram is offered to Yahweh as well. The amends necessitates a valuation; this is to be made in sanctuary shekels (see on Leviticus 27:16-25). Leviticus 5:17-19 seems to add nothing to the preceding; there is no mention of amends, and guilt offering is spoken of, with reference to the subjects of sin offering in Leviticus 4. Perhaps it is an older fragment; cf. Ezra 10:19, where for the sin of marrying foreign wives, a ram is offered by the people for their guilt. In the case of trespass against one's neighbour, the procedure is parallel; in this case, the restitution is mentioned before the ram of the guilt offering. But the latter is as necessary as the former; all morality is the concern of Yahweh, and in every trespass He is injured. This is one of the few references to social morality in P. The earlier prophets refer to little else, and Ezekiel, in ch. 18, confines his catalogue to non-ritual offences, to be purged only by repentance.
Leviticus 6:1-7
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the LORD, and lie unto his neighbour in that which was delivered him to keep, or in fellowship,a or in a thing taken away by violence, or hath deceived his neighbour;
3 Or have found that which was lost, and lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely; in any of all these that a man doeth, sinning therein:
4 Then it shall be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took violently away, or the thing which he hath deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing which he found,
5 Or all that about which he hath sworn falsely; he shall even restore it in the principal, and shall add the fifth part more thereto, and give it unto him to whom it appertaineth, in the dayb of his trespass offering.
6 And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD, a ram without blemish out of the flock, with thy estimation, for a trespass offering, unto the priest:
7 And the priest shall make an atonement for him before the LORD: and it shall be forgiven him for any thing of all that he hath done in trespassing therein.