If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord— Some have supposed, that this if implies a permission, and not a command; whereas the particle כי ki should either be rendered who or when: "the man who shall bring an "offering;" or, "when any man shall bring an offering." (See Noldius on the word, 19 and 22.) The Chaldee and Vulgate render it by who; the Samaritan and Syriac by when. The word קרבן karban, here rendered an offering, comes from a verb signifying to draw near or bring; and therefore imports, without distinction, any gift brought to the house, altar, or priests of the Lord. Animals universally accounted clean were those only permitted to be offered to JEHOVAH; no ravenous beasts, or birds of prey, were ever admitted: upon which Bishop Kidder very pleasingly observes, "What more useful than a bullock? More profitable than a sheep or goat? More simple and harmless than a dove? And, if the observation of Philo be true, that the offerer was to be like his oblation; then are innocence and industry, usefulness and simplicity, recommended by this institution to the worshippers of the true God."
REFLECTIONS.—God having taught the first man, after his fall, the necessity of atonement for sin by sacrifice, we find it faithfully transmitted to his posterity; and when the true religion was lost in idolatry, the sacrifices still remained. When God therefore took a people to himself, he both taught them the use of sacrifices, and directed them in the choice of such as were most significant of the one great sacrifice, which in the fulness of time was to be offered. The thunders of Sinai ushered in that law which only gave the knowledge of sin: but now, when sacrifices for sin are enjoined, God speaks in milder accents from the mercy-seat. The law is a voice of terror; the gospel, of grace and love.