Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Leviticus 4:1 - 4:12
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
For a Priest
v. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
v. 2. Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, if a soul shall sin through ignorance, in an unintentional offense, against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them; (the sacrifices enumerated till now were free-will offerings and could be brought even when there was no specific occasion, whenever the heart of the individual prompted him to seek the Lord's fellowship in sacrifice, prayer, and sacrificial meal; but there were times and occasions when certain sacrifices had to be made, as when an unintentional trespass had occurred. This included all sins of weakness, not only such as had been committed in ignorance, haste, and negligence, but also such in which the weakness of the flesh had overcome the good intention of the believer);
v. 3. if the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people, the reference here very probably being to the high priest, who was in a special sense the anointed of the Lord among the priests; if this high priest in his official capacity, as the representative of the people, should become guilty of such an unintentional sin, then let him bring for his sin which he hath sinned a young bullock without blemish unto the Lord for a sin-offering, the most conspicuous sacrificial animal because of the priest's high position.
v. 4. And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, where all the sacrificial animals were officially delivered, before the Lord, and shall lay his hand up on the bullock's head, in the gesture signifying the transmission of his own guilt upon the substitute victim, and kill the bullock before the Lord, the animal taking the place of the guilty man.
v. 5. And the priest that is anointed, the high priest, shall take of the bullock's blood, and bring it to the Tabernacle of the Congregation, into the Holy Place;
v. 6. and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the Lord, before the veil of the Sanctuary, the heavy curtain that screened the ark in the Most Holy Place.
v. 7. And the priest shall put some of the blood up on the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord, which is in the Tabernacle of the Congregation, the horns of the golden altar being used only in this case and when the entire nation was concerned, since the offense was considered especially grave; and shall pour all the blood of the bullock, the great bulk of it, but little haying been used for the ceremonies of the Holy Place, at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, out in the open court. The sacrificial blood, which was to expiate the sin, was thus placed very prominently before the eyes of the Lord, in order to plead for His forgiveness.
v. 8. And he shall take off from it all the fat of the bullock for the sin-offering; the fat that covereth the inwards, the large net of adipose membrane in the abdominal cavity, and all the fat that is up on the inwards, the loose fat along the intestines,
v. 9. and the two kidneys, and the fat that is up on them, which is by the flanks, attached to the muscles of the upper pelvic region, and the caul above the liver, the small net of adipose membrane which extends from the liver to the kidneys, with the kidneys, it shall he take away,
v. 10. as it was taken off from the bullock of the sacrifice of peace-offerings, Lev_3:3-4;and the priest shall burn them upon the altar of the burnt offering.
v. 11. And the skin of the bullock, and all his flesh, with his head, and with his legs, and his inwards, and his dung,
v. 12. even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out when they were carried out from time to time out of the court of the Tabernacle,and burn him on the wood with fire; where the ashes are poured out shall he be burned. This complete removal of the sacrifice of sin-offering signified that the sin for which it was brought was now put away entirely, and the whole ceremony was intended to express the fact that the fellowship with God, which had been disturbed or severed by the sinful act, was now once more restored to its original integrity.