1And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Speak to the Israelites, saying, ‘Should a person offend errantly in regard to any of the LORD’s commands that should not be done and he do one of these, 3if the anointed priest should offend, incurring guilt for the people, he shall bring forward for his offense that he has committed an unblemished bull from the herd for the LORD as an offense offering. 4And he shall bring the bull to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting before the LORD and lay his hand on the head of the bull and slaughter the bull before the LORD. 5And the anointed priest shall take from the blood of the bull and bring it to the Tent of Meeting. 6And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle from the blood seven times before the LORD against the covering of the shrine. 7And the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of aromatic incense before the LORD, which is in the Tent of Meeting, and all the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the burnt-offering altar which is at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 8And all the fat of the bull of offense offering, he shall set aside from it the fat covering the innards and all the fat that is on the innards. 9The two kidneys and the fat that is on them, which is on the sinews, and the lobe on the liver, together with the kidneys, he shall take away, 10as it is set aside from the communion-sacrifice bull. And the priest shall turn them to smoke on the burnt-offering altar, 11and the hide of the bull together with its head and together with its shanks and its innards and its dung. 12And he shall take the whole bull out beyond the camp to a clean place, to the ash heap, and he shall burn it on wood with fire, on the ash heap it shall be burned. 13And if all the community of Israel should err, and the thing be hidden from the eyes of the assembly, and they do one of all the LORD’s commands that should not be done, and they bear guilt, 14and the offense that they committed become known, the assembly shall bring forward a bull from the herd as an offense offering, and they shall bring it before the Tent of Meeting. 15And the elders of the community shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before the LORD, and the bull shall be slaughtered before the LORD. 16And the anointed priest shall bring from the blood of the bull to the Tent of Meeting. 17And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle from the blood seven times before the LORD against the covering of the shrine. 18And some of the blood he shall put on the horns of the altar that is before the LORD, which is in the Tent of Meeting, and all the blood he shall pour out at the base of the burnt-offering altar, which is at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. 19And he shall set aside all the fat from the bull and turn it to smoke on the altar. 20And he shall do to the bull as he did to the offense-offering bull, so shall it be done to it, and the priest shall atone for them and it shall be forgiven them. 21And he shall take the bull out beyond the camp and burn it as he burned the first bull. It is an offense offering of the assembly. 22When a chieftain offends and does one of all the commands of the LORD his God that should not be done, in errance, and he bears guilt, 23or his offense that he committed is made known to him, he shall bring his offering, an unblemished male goat. 24And he shall lay his hand on the head of the goat and slaughter it in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered before the LORD. It is an offense offering. 25And the priest shall take from the blood of the offense offering on his finger and place it on the horns of the burnt-offering altar, and he shall pour out its blood at the base of the burnt-offering altar. 26And all its fat he shall turn to smoke on the altar like the fat of the communion sacrifice, and the priest shall atone for him for his offense, and it shall be forgiven him. 27And if a single person from the common people should offend errantly in doing one of the LORD’s commands that should not be done, and bear guilt, 28or his offense that he committed is made known to him, he shall bring his offering, an unblemished female goat, for his offense which he committed. 29And he shall lay his hand on the head of the offense offering and slaughter the offense offering in the place of the burnt offering. 30And the priest shall take from its blood on his finger and place it on the horns of the burnt-offering altar, and he shall pour out all its blood at the base of the altar. 31And all its fat he shall take away, as the fat was taken away from the communion sacrifice, and the priest shall turn it to smoke on the altar as a fragrant odor to the LORD, and the priest shall atone for him and it shall be forgiven him. 32And if he brings a sheep as his offering for an offense, an unblemished female he shall bring it. 33And he shall lay his hand on the head of the offense offering and slaughter it as an offense offering in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered. 34And the priest shall take from the blood of the offense offering on his finger and place it on the horns of the altar, and all its blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar. 35And all its fat he shall take away as the fat of the sheep is taken away from the communion sacrifice, and the priest shall turn it to smoke together with the fire offerings of the LORD, and the priest shall atone for him, for his offense that he committed, and it shall be forgiven him.’”
CHAPTER 4 NOTES
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1. And the LORD spoke to Moses. As Milgrom observes, this introductory formula marks the beginning of a new category of offerings, those offered to expunge the effects of an inadvertent offense.
2. offend errantly. The Hebrew adverb bishegagah has the sense of “unintentionally,” “by mistake.” The concern throughout this section is to preserve the purity of the place of the cult. The inadvertent “offense” does not at all imply an ethical transgression but rather the unwitting violation of a prohibition (“any of the LORD’s commands that should not be done”), which, in ancient Near Eastern terms, has the consequence of generating physical pollution that must be cleansed. The rabbis aptly explained that the errancy could result from either ignorance of the law or ignorance of the circumstances of the act committed.
3. the anointed priest. This is an alternate designation for the high priest.
as an offense offering. The traditional translation of this term is “sin offering.” Milgrom argues in elaborate detail that this is a misrepresentation of the Hebrew ḥataʾt and proposes “purification offering” as a precise English equivalent. The verb ḥata’ in the qal conjugation, as in verse 2 here, means “to commit an offense,” a term probably taken over from the political to the cultic realm (as when a vassal people commits an offense against its overlords by rebelling). The same root in the piʿel conjugation means to “remove” or “cancel” (one well-attested semantic function of this conjugation) the offense. The noun ḥataʾt is derived from the piʿel conjugation and hence the canceling-out effect (“purification”) is in fact implied. But something is lost by using a designation for this offering that is not cognate with the verb “to offend,” and the context makes clear enough that an offense offering is a sacrifice that removes the effects of the offense.
6. dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle from the blood seven times before the LORD against the covering of the shrine. This sanguinary business may strike the modern reader as an odd way to purify anything, but throughout the Bible blood has powerfully antithetical valences, alternately identified as the stuff of life and the manifestation of guilt. Perhaps because it was thought to be the very bearer of the life force in animate creatures, it was understood to have what Milgrom vividly calls a “detergent” effect. The sprinkling is of course performed seven times because of the sacredness of the number seven.
7. the horns of the altar. Ancient Near Eastern altars in fact have been uncovered that have stone horns carved at each of the four corners. Although no definitive explanation of this general practice has been offered, since the animal’s horn is a recurrent image in biblical poetry for power, the horned altar may be a way of defining this space as a zone of power. Fugitives seeking asylum in the sanctuary would cling to one of the horns of the altar.
all the blood. This phrase obviously means all of the remaining blood since a small amount of the blood has been sprinkled on the altar.
13. if all the community of Israel should err. As several commentators have noted, this could occur if, for example, the high priest inadvertently misguided them—say, about the day for observing a particular festival.