2 If anyone becomes unclean through touching unconsciously some unclean thing, such as the dead body of an unclean beast or of unclean cattle or of any unclean animal which goes flat on the earth, he will be responsible:
And if anyone does wrong, and does any of the things which the Lord has given orders are not to be done, though he has no knowledge of it, still he is in the wrong and he is responsible.
Anyone touching a dead body will be unclean for seven days: On the third day and on the seventh day he is to make himself clean with the water, and so he will be clean: but if he does not do this on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. Anyone touching the body of a dead man without making himself clean in this way, makes the House of the Lord unclean; and that man will be cut off from Israel: because the water was not put on him, he will be unclean; his unclean condition is unchanged. This is the law when death comes to a man in his tent: everyone who comes into the tent, and everyone who is in the tent, will be unclean for seven days. And every open vessel without a cover fixed on it will be unclean. And anyone touching one who has been put to death with the sword in the open country, or the body of one who has come to his end by a natural death, or a man's bone, or the resting-place of a dead body, will be unclean for seven days.
And if all the people of Israel do wrong, without anyone's knowledge; if they have done any of the things which by the Lord's order are not to be done, causing sin to come on them;
Or if anyone, without thought, takes an oath to do evil or to do good, whatever he says without thought, with an oath, having no knowledge of what he is doing; when it becomes clear to him, he will be responsible for any of these things.
They may not be used for food, and their dead bodies are disgusting to you.
By these you will be made unclean; anyone touching their dead bodies will be unclean till evening: Whoever takes away the dead body of one of them is to have his clothing washed, and will be unclean till evening. Every beast, in the horn of whose foot there is not a complete division, and whose food does not come back, is unclean to you: anyone touching one of these will be unclean. Any four-footed beast which goes on the ball of its foot, is unclean to you: anyone touching the dead body of one of these will be unclean till evening. Anyone who takes away the dead body of one of these is to have his clothing washed and be unclean till evening. And these are unclean to you among things which go low down on the earth; the weasel and the mouse and the great lizard, and animals of that sort; And the ferret and the land crocodile and the lizard and the sand-lizard and the chameleon. All these are unclean to you: anyone touching them when they are dead will be unclean till evening. The dead body of any of these, falling on anything, will make that thing unclean; if it is any vessel of wood, or clothing, or skin, or bag, whatever it is, if it is used for any purpose, it will have to be put into water, and will be unclean till evening; after that it will be clean. And if one of them gets into any vessel of earth, whatever is in the vessel will be unclean and the vessel will have to be broken. Any food in it, and anything on which water from it comes, will be unclean: any drink taken from such a vessel will be unclean. Any part of the dead body of one of these, falling on anything, will make it unclean; if it is an oven or a cooking-pot it will have to be broken: they are unclean and will be unclean to you. But at the same time a fountain or a place where water is stored for use will be clean; but anyone touching their dead bodies will be unclean. If any part of the dead body of one of these gets on to any seed for planting, it is clean; But if water is put on the seed, and any part of the dead body gets on to it, it will be unclean to you. And if any beast which may be used for food comes to a natural death, anyone touching its dead body will be unclean till evening. And he who makes use of any part of its body for food is to have his clothing washed and be unclean till evening; and anyone taking away its body is to have his clothing washed and be unclean till evening.
A curse is on you! for you are like the resting-places of dead men, which are not seen, and men go walking over them without knowledge of it.
Who has full knowledge of his errors? make me clean from secret evil.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Leviticus 5
Commentary on Leviticus 5 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 5
Le 5:1. Trespass Offerings for Concealing Knowledge.
1. if a soul … hear the voice of swearing—or, according to some, "the words of adjuration." A proclamation was issued calling any one who could give information, to come before the court and bear testimony to the guilt of a criminal; and the manner in which witnesses were interrogated in the Jewish courts of justice was not by swearing them directly, but adjuring them by reading the words of an oath: "the voice of swearing." The offense, then, for the expiation of which this law provides, was that of a person who neglected or avoided the opportunity of lodging the information which it was in his power to communicate.
Le 5:2, 3. Touching Any Thing Unclean.
2. if a soul touch any unclean thing—A person who, unknown to himself at the time, came in contact with any thing unclean, and either neglected the requisite ceremonies of purification or engaged in the services of religion while under the taint of ceremonial defilement, might be afterwards convinced that he had committed an offense.
Le 5:4-19. For Swearing.
4. if a soul swear—a rash oath, without duly considering the nature and consequences of the oath, perhaps inconsiderately binding himself to do anything wrong, or neglecting to perform a vow to do something good. In all such cases a person might have transgressed one of the divine commandments unwittingly, and have been afterwards brought to a sense of his delinquency.
5. it shall be, when he shall be guilty … that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing—make a voluntary acknowledgment of his sin from the impulse of his own conscience, and before it come to the knowledge of the world. A previous discovery might have subjected him to some degree of punishment from which his spontaneous confession released him, but still he was considered guilty of trespass, to expiate which he was obliged by the ceremonial law to go through certain observances.
6-14. he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord for his sins which he hath sinned—A trespass offering differed from a sin offering in the following respects: that it was appointed for persons who had either done evil unwittingly, or were in doubt as to their own criminality; or felt themselves in such a special situation as required sacrifices of that kind [Brown]. The trespass offering appointed in such cases was a female lamb or kid; if unable to make such an offering, he might bring a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons—the one to be offered for a sin offering, the other for a burnt offering; or if even that was beyond his ability, the law would be satisfied with the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour without oil or frankincense.
15, 16. sin through ignorance, in the holy things of the Lord, &c.—This is a case of sacrilege committed ignorantly, either in not paying the full due of tithes, first-fruits, and similar tribute in eating of meats, which belonged to the priests alone—or he was required, along with the restitution in money, the amount of which was to be determined by the priest, to offer a ram for a trespass offering, as soon as he came to the knowledge of his involuntary fraud.
17-19. if a soul sin … though he wist it not, yet is he guilty—This also refers to holy things, and it differs from the preceding in being one of the doubtful cases,—that is, where conscience suspects, though the understanding be in doubt whether criminality or sin has been committed. The Jewish rabbis give, as an example, the case of a person who, knowing that "the fat of the inwards" is not to be eaten, religiously abstained from the use of it; but should a dish happen to have been at table in which he had reason to suspect some portion of that meat was intermingled, and he had, inadvertently, partaken of that unlawful viand, he was bound to bring a ram as a trespass offering [Le 5:16]. These provisions were all designed to impress the conscience with the sense of responsibility to God and keep alive on the hearts of the people a salutary fear of doing any secret wrong.