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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Numbers 5:5 - 5:5
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Restitution in Case of a Trespass. - No crime against the property of a neighbour was to remain without expiation in the congregation of Israel, which was encamped or dwelt around the sanctuary of Jehovah; and the wrong committed was not to remain without restitution, because such crimes involved unfaithfulness (מַעַל, see Lev 5:15) towards Jehovah. “If a man or a woman do one of the sins of men, to commit unfaithfulness against Jehovah, and the same soul has incurred guilt, they shall confess their sin which they have done, and (the doer) shall recompense his debt according to its sum” (בְּרֹאשֹׁו, as in Lev 6:5), etc. הָאָדָם מִכָּל־חַטֹּאת, one of the sins occurring among men, not “a sin against a man” (Luther, Ros., etc.). The meaning is a sin, with which a מַעַל was committed against Jehovah, i.e., one of the acts described in Lev 6:3-4, by which injury was done to the property of a neighbour, whereby a man brought a debt upon himself, for the wiping out of which a material restitution of the other's property was prescribed, together with the addition of a fifth of its value, and also the presentation of a sin-offering (Lev 6:4-7). To guard against that disturbance of fellowship and peace in the congregation, which would arise from such trespasses as these, the law already given in Lev 6:1 is here renewed and supplemented by the additional stipulation, that if the man who had been unjustly deprived of some of his property had no Goël, to whom restitution could be made for the debt, the compensation should be paid to Jehovah for the priests. The Goël was the nearest relative, upon whom the obligation rested to redeem a person who had fallen into slavery through poverty (Lev 25:25). The allusion to the Goël in this connection presupposes that the injured person was no longer alive. To this there are appended, in Num 5:9 and Num 5:10, the directions which are substantially connected with this, viz., that every heave-offering (Terumah, see at Lev 2:9) in the holy gifts of the children of Israel, which they presented to the priest, was to belong to him (the priest), and also all the holy gifts which were brought by different individuals. The reference is not to literal sacrifices, i.e., gifts intended for the altar, but to dedicatory offerings, first-fruits, and such like. אֶת־קֳדָשָׁיו אִישׁ, “with regard to every man's, his holy gifts...to him (the priest) shall they be; what any man gives to the priest shall belong to him.” The second clause serves to explain and confirm the first. אֵת: as far, with regard to, quoad (see Ewald, §277, d; Ges. §117, 2, note).