If He Cannot Afford a Lamb
1 “‘If anyone sins, in that he hears a public adjuration to testify, he being a witness, whether he has seen or known, if he doesn’t report it, then he shall bear his iniquity. 2 “‘Or if anyone touches any unclean thing, whether it is the carcass of an unclean animal, or the carcass of unclean livestock, or the carcass of unclean creeping things, and it is hidden from him, and he is unclean, then he shall be guilty. 3 “‘Or if he touches the uncleanness of man, whatever his uncleanness is with which he is unclean, and it is hidden from him; when he knows of it, then he shall be guilty. 4 “‘Or if anyone swears rashly with his lips to do evil or to do good—whatever it is that a man might utter rashly with an oath, and it is hidden from him—when he knows of it, then he will be guilty of one of these. 5 It shall be, when he is guilty of one of these, he shall confess that in which he has sinned; 6 and he shall bring his trespass offering to Yahweh for his sin which he has sinned: a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin. 7 “‘If he can’t afford a lamb, then he shall bring his trespass offering for that in which he has sinned, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, to Yahweh; one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering. 8 He shall bring them to the priest, who shall first offer the one which is for the sin offering. He shall wring off its head from its neck, but shall not sever it completely. 9 He shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar; and the rest of the blood shall be drained out at the base of the altar. It is a sin offering. 10 He shall offer the second for a burnt offering, according to the ordinance; and the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin which he has sinned, and he shall be forgiven. 11 “‘But if he can’t afford two turtledoves or two young pigeons, then he shall bring as his offering for that in which he has sinned, one tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering. He shall put no oil on it, and he shall not put any frankincense on it, for it is a sin offering. 12 He shall bring it to the priest, and the priest shall take his handful of it as the memorial portion, and burn it on the altar, on the offerings of Yahweh made by fire. It is a sin offering. 13 The priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin that he has sinned in any of these things, and he will be forgiven; and the rest shall be the priest’s, as the meal offering.’”
Four ordinary failures are named, confession is required, and the offering descends to a handful of flour so that nobody is excluded.
The chapter opens with four specific cases, and they are not the sins a reader would expect a law code to begin with.
A man who hears a public adjuration to testify and does not come forward Leviticus 5:1. Someone who touches an unclean thing without realizing. Someone who touches human uncleanness. And a man who swears rashly with his lips and then remembers Leviticus 5:4.
The first is a failure to speak; the last is speaking too fast. Between them are two accidents. None of the four is theft, violence or idolatry, and all four are the kind of thing that happens to ordinary people in a week.
Then a requirement that has not appeared before: he shall confess that in which he has sinned Leviticus 5:5.
The animal does not do the whole work. Before the offering there is an admission, spoken, naming the thing. The system is not a mechanism into which a guilty man feeds livestock; it requires him to say what he did.
What follows is the most striking legislation in the sacrificial code, and it is about money.
The standard offering is a female lamb or goat Leviticus 5:6. Then: if he can't afford a lamb, two turtledoves or two young pigeons Leviticus 5:7. And then: if he can't afford two turtledoves or two young pigeons, a tenth of an ephah of fine flour Leviticus 5:11.
The law descends twice, and it descends all the way to a handful of flour. Somebody too poor to buy two of the cheapest birds available is not left outside the arrangement.
Two details of the flour offering show how carefully it was thought about. No oil and no frankincense are added Leviticus 5:11 — the additions that made a meal offering a gift are stripped out, because this is not a gift but a sin offering, and it must not look like a lesser class of worship. And the flour is burned on the offerings of Yahweh made by fire Leviticus 5:12, on the same altar, in the same fire, as everybody else's.
The verdict is then given in the same words used for the man who brought a bull: the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin that he has sinned in any of these things, and he will be forgiven Leviticus 5:13.
The forgiveness is not proportional to the offering. A poor man's flour buys exactly what a rich man's bull buys, and the sentence pronounced over both is the same sentence.
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