For Teaching

Leviticus 4: What the Passage Says

126 claims across 35 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Leviticus 4 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD gives Moses the rules for the sin offering, which covers sins committed without meaning to break any of the LORD's commands. Four cases are set out: the anointed priest, the whole community of Israel, a leader, and an ordinary person, with the animal and the handling of the blood and the fat set out for each. For the priest and for the community the blood is brought inside the tent and sprinkled in front of the curtain, and the rest of the animal is burned outside the camp; for a leader and for an ordinary person the blood is put on the altar of burnt offering. In the last three cases the chapter says the priest makes atonement and the sin is forgiven.

Claim by Claim

4:1
- The LORD spoke to Moses.
- The LORD told Moses to say something.
4:2
- The LORD instructed Moses to speak to the children of Israel.
- The instruction concerns a person who sins unintentionally against any of the LORD's commandments.
- The commandments in view are ones concerning things that ought not to be done.
- The case is that the person does one of those forbidden things.
4:3
- The case is that the anointed priest sins.
- The anointed priest's sin brings guilt on the people.
- The anointed priest must bring an offering for the sin he has sinned.
- The offering is a young bull from the herd.
- The bull must be without blemish.
- The bull is brought to the LORD.
- The bull is brought as a sin offering.
4:4
- He must bring the bull to the entrance of the tent of meeting.
- The bull is brought before the LORD.
- He must lay his hand on the bull's head.
- He must slaughter the bull before the LORD.
4:5
- The anointed priest must take some of the bull's blood.
- He must bring the blood into the tent of meeting.
4:6
- The priest must dip his finger in the blood.
- He must sprinkle some of the blood seven times before the LORD.
- The sprinkling is done in front of the veil of the sanctuary.
4:7
- The priest must put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense.
- That altar is before the LORD.
- That altar is in the tent of meeting.
- He must pour out all the rest of the bull's blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering.
- The altar of burnt offering is at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
4:8
- He must remove all the fat of the bull of the sin offering from it.
- This includes the fat that covers the entrails.
- This includes all the fat that is on the entrails.
4:9
- He must remove the two kidneys.
- He must remove the fat that is on the kidneys, near the loins.
- He must remove the lobe above the liver.
- The lobe is removed together with the kidneys.
4:10
- The fat is removed just as it is removed from the ox of the peace offering sacrifice.
- The priest must burn these portions on the altar of burnt offering.
4:11
- The hide of the bull is set apart from those portions.
- All the bull's flesh is set apart.
- Its head is set apart.
- Its legs are set apart.
- Its entrails are set apart.
- Its dung is set apart.
4:12
- He must carry the whole rest of the bull outside the camp.
- It is taken to a clean place.
- That place is where the ashes are poured out.
- He must burn it on wood with fire.
- It must be burned at the place where the ashes are poured out.
4:13
- The case is that the whole congregation of Israel sins unintentionally.
- The matter is hidden from the eyes of the assembly.
- They do one of the things forbidden by the LORD's commandments.
- They become guilty.
4:14
- The case continues when the sin they committed becomes known.
- The assembly must then offer a young bull from the herd as a sin offering.
- They must bring it before the tent of meeting.
4:15
- The elders of the congregation must lay their hands on the bull's head before the LORD.
- The bull is slaughtered before the LORD.
4:16
- The anointed priest must bring some of the bull's blood into the tent of meeting.
4:17
- The priest must dip his finger in the blood.
- He must sprinkle it seven times before the LORD.
- The sprinkling is done in front of the veil.
4:18
- He must put some of the blood on the horns of the altar that is before the LORD.
- That altar is in the tent of meeting.
- He must pour out all the rest of the blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering.
- The altar of burnt offering is at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
4:19
- He must remove all the fat from it.
- He must burn the fat on the altar.
4:20
- He must do with this bull as he did with the bull of the sin offering.
- He must do the same with it.
- The priest makes atonement for them.
- They will be forgiven.
4:21
- He must carry the bull outside the camp.
- He must burn it as he burned the first bull.
- It is the sin offering for the assembly.
4:22
- The case is that a leader sins.
- He does one of the things forbidden by the commandments of the LORD his God.
- He does it unintentionally.
- He becomes guilty.
4:23
- The case continues when his sin, in which he sinned, is made known to him.
- He must bring his offering.
- The offering is a male goat.
- The goat must be without blemish.
4:24
- He must lay his hand on the goat's head.
- He must slaughter it in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered.
- The slaughter is before the LORD.
- It is a sin offering.
4:25
- The priest must take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger.
- He must put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering.
- He must pour out its blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering.
4:26
- He must burn all its fat on the altar.
- The fat is burned like the fat of the peace offering sacrifice.
- The priest makes atonement for him concerning his sin.
- He will be forgiven.
4:27
- The case is that one person of the common people sins unintentionally.
- He does one of the things forbidden by the LORD's commandments.
- He becomes guilty.
4:28
- The case continues when his sin, which he sinned, is made known to him.
- He must bring his offering.
- The offering is a female goat.
- The goat must be without blemish.
- The offering is for his sin which he sinned.
4:29
- He must lay his hand on the head of the sin offering.
- He must slaughter the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering.
4:30
- The priest must take some of its blood with his finger.
- He must put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering.
- He must pour out all its blood at the base of the altar.
4:31
- He must remove all its fat.
- The fat is removed as fat is removed from the peace offering sacrifice.
- The priest must burn it on the altar.
- It is burned as a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
- The priest makes atonement for him.
- He will be forgiven.
4:32
- The case is that he brings a lamb as his offering for a sin offering.
- He must bring a female.
- The lamb must be without blemish.
4:33
- He must lay his hand on the head of the sin offering.
- He must slaughter it as a sin offering.
- It is slaughtered in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered.
4:34
- The priest must take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger.
- He must put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering.
- He must pour out all its blood at the base of the altar.
4:35
- He must remove all its fat.
- The fat is removed as the fat of the lamb is removed from the peace offering sacrifice.
- The priest must burn these portions on the altar.
- They are burned upon the offerings made by fire to the LORD.
- The priest makes atonement for him for his sin that he committed.
- He will be forgiven.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

4:1: "The LORD" in small capitals stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters usually written YHWH. Ancient Jewish practice was to avoid saying it aloud and to read "Lord" instead, and most English Bibles keep that custom by printing LORD in capitals wherever the name occurs.
4:2: "Without meaning to" translates a Hebrew term for acting in error, sinning by mistake, in ignorance of the rule, or without realizing at the time what one was doing. The chapter deals only with breaches of prohibitions (things that must not be done), not with failures to do something required. Deliberate, defiant wrongdoing is not covered by this ritual at all.
4:3: The "anointed priest" is the chief priest, the one smeared with the sacred oil at his installation (Aaron, and after him his successor). "With nothing wrong with it" means physically unblemished, no injury, defect, or disease. A "sin offering" (Hebrew *chatta't*) is better understood as a purification offering: its function was to cleanse the sanctuary and the worshiper of the contamination the offense had caused, not to pay a fine. The animals required rise with the offender's rank, and this chapter runs down the scale: bull for the chief priest, bull for the whole nation, male goat for a leader, female goat or lamb for an ordinary person.
4:4: The "tent of meeting" is the portable sanctuary the Israelites carried through the wilderness, a curtained enclosure with an altar in its courtyard and a tent at the far end. Laying a hand on the animal's head was a formal gesture of designation, marking this particular animal as the offerer's own and connecting it to him; the offerer, not the priest, killed the animal.
4:5: Putting a hand on the animal's head showed whose gift it was. The animal was given in that person's place.
4:6: The "curtain" is the inner veil hanging in front of the innermost room of the tent, where the ark stood. Seven was the standard number for a complete ritual act.
4:7: The altar had four projections at its upper corners, shaped like horns, its highest and most prominent points. There were two altars: a small incense altar inside the tent, and the large altar for burnt offerings out in the courtyard by the entrance. Only for the offerings of the chief priest and of the whole nation did blood go inside the tent to the incense altar; for lesser offerings it went no further than the outer altar.
4:8: "The inwards" are the internal organs, the guts. In these rituals the fat is not waste but the prized part, the richest portion of the animal, and it is the piece given to God rather than eaten.
4:9: The King James "caul above the liver" is the finger-shaped lobe of the liver. These fatty parts (the fat around the entrails, the kidneys and their fat, the liver lobe) were the portions reserved for burning; Israelites were forbidden to eat this hard fat around the organs.
4:10: The "peace offering" (Hebrew *shelamim*) was a sacrifice most of which was eaten as a shared meal by the worshipers, with only the fat parts burned. It is used here as the familiar standard for how to butcher the fat.
4:12: "Clean" here means ritually fit, not merely tidy, a place not disqualified by contact with anything unclean. The ash dump outside the encampment was where the altar's ashes were carried; this carcass was burned there entirely, not eaten by anyone.
4:13: "Community" and "assembly" both render terms for Israel gathered as a single body. The point is a collective error, the whole nation acting on a wrong ruling or in ignorance of a rule, which only comes to light later.
4:15: The elders act on behalf of the entire nation, since the whole community cannot each lay a hand on the animal.
4:20: "Atonement" translates the Hebrew *kipper*, whose underlying sense is to wipe clean, purge, or cover over. It describes what the ritual accomplishes, the removal of the defilement caused by the offense, rather than a state of mind in the worshiper.
4:22: A "leader" (Hebrew *nasi*) is a chief of a tribe or clan, a civil head of the people, not a priest.
4:23: The King James "kid of the goats" simply means a young goat. A male is required of a leader; an ordinary person (verse 28) brings a female, a less valuable animal.
4:24: A burnt offering was a gift burned up all the way on the altar. There was one certain spot in the yard where these animals were killed.
4:26: The fat is burned exactly as in the peace offering, the shared-meal sacrifice of chapter 3, which readers of this book have already been given the instructions for.
4:27: "Common people" renders a Hebrew phrase meaning literally "the people of the land", ordinary Israelites, as distinct from priests and leaders.
4:28: The female goat costs less than the male one required of a leader. Throughout this system the value of the animal tracks the offerer's rank and means, so that the requirement stays within reach of an ordinary household.
4:31: "A pleasing smell" (King James "a sweet savour") is a fixed formula in sacrificial law for an offering accepted by God; it is a set phrase rather than a comment on the odor.
4:32: Offering a lamb instead of a goat is presented as a straightforward alternative, not a lesser option. The worshiper brings whichever animal their flock actually has.
4:35: "Offerings made by fire" is the standard term for the class of sacrifices burned on the altar, of which this fat is one portion.

Read Leviticus 4