Circumstances for Trespass Offerings

1. If a person sins in hearing the utterance of an oath and is a witness, regardless of whether he saw the matter or just knows of it and does not tell the truth, he bears guilt. In other words, the person is required to make the truth known even if they just knew about the lie (a cover up). Failing to speak up with the truth made them guilty.
2. If a person touches any unclean thing, whether it’s the carcass of an unclean beast, livestock, or creeping things and he is not aware of it, he will also be unclean and guilty. If a person touches human uncleanness, regardless of what caused the person to be defiled, and he is not aware of it, he will be guilty when he realizes it. According to Enduring Word (enduringword.com), this is ceremonial uncleanness, therefore, one would have to be ceremonially cleansed. Enduring Word also states that guilt was established when the sin was committed and when he realized it, then he was responsible for dealing with the sin.
3. If a person swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips, whether it’s to do evil or good by oath and he’s not aware of it, he is guilty when he realizes it. According to Enduring Word, a promise was a promise to be kept even if it was a careless one before the Lord. If the promise wasn’t kept, it had to be atoned for by a sin offering. When we are aware of our broken vows, we must repent of them. An example of this could be telling someone that you will pray for them and then you forget to do so.
4. When a person realized his guilt in any of the above matters, he was to confess that he had sinned in the matter. Note that the trespass offering required a confession of the sin before presenting the offering.

The trespass offering to the Lord for a sin committed, was to be a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats as a sin offering. The priest was to make atonement for him concerning the sin. If the person wasn’t able to bring a lamb, then for his trespass, he should bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the Lord – one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. The trespass offering for a poor Israelite was two in one. The sin offering to make atonement for the sin of trespass and the burnt offering to express renewed complete commitment to walking within God’s boundaries. (Source: Enduring Word)

The offering was taken to the priest, who would offer the sin offering first by wringing off its head from the neck, but not divided completely. Then the priest would sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar and the rest of the blood would be drained out at the base of the altar. It is a sin offering. The second offering would be offered as a burnt offering in the prescribed manner. The priest would make atonement on behalf of the person for the sin he committed and he would be forgiven.

If the person wasn’t able to bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons, then they could bring for the offering, one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour as a sin offering. He could not put oil or frankincense on it, because it was a sin offering. The priest would take his handful of it as a memorial portion. Then he would burn it on the altar in the manner of offerings made by fire to the Lord. It was a sin offering. The priest would make atonement for him regarding the sin committed in any of the matters and he would be forgiven. The rest would be for the priest as a grain offering.

Offerings of Restitution – If a person commits a trespass by sinning unintentionally regarding the holy things of the Lord, then he would bring to the Lord as his trespass offering, a ram without blemish from the flock with the valuation in shekels of silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary, as a trespass offering. He would make restitution for the harm he did in regard to the holy thing and add one-fifth to it and give it to the priest. The priest would make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and he would be forgiven. If a person sins and commits any of these things which were forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord, even though he did not know it, he was still guilty and should still bear his iniquity. He should take a ram without blemish from the flock to the priest, with the valuation, as a trespass offering. The priest would then make atonement for him regarding his ignorance in which he erred and didn’t know it. He would be forgiven. It is a trespass offering because he certainly trespassed against the Lord. So, Restitution Offerings were for offenses against holy things of the Lord that required a “money” payment as well.

Next week we journey to Leviticus 6.

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