Verse 22
"When a ruler sinneth, and doeth unwittingly any one of all the things which Jehovah his God hath commanded not to be done, and is guilty, if his sin, wherein he hath sinned, be made known to him, he shall bring for his oblation a goat, a male without blemish. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the goat, and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt-offering before Jehovah: it is a sin-offering. And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin-offering with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt-offering; and the blood thereof shall he pour out at the base of the altar of burnt-offering. And all the fat thereof shall he burn upon the altar, as the fat of the sacrifice of peace-offerings; and the priest shall make atonement for him as concerning his sin, and he shall be forgiven."
"When a ruler sinneth ..." If Leviticus had been written at some time long after Moses, there is utterly no way that such a word as this would have crept into the text. "Ruler is a term particularly associated with the tribal organization of early Israel."[12] This effectively dates Leviticus (and the Pentateuch) in the early tribal period (the period of Moses), and refutes both the monarchial and post-monarchial periods as the time these instructions were given. Yes, it may be true that "ruler" was a term here and there used for kings (even David) in later Jewish history, but the "ruler" in this passage did not have the rank of king. The he-goat, as contrasted with bullock, demonstrates his lower rank, below that of both the high priest, or any priest, and that of the public assembly also.
"A goat, a male without blemish ..." It is of interest that the Hebrews had two words for "goat," [~sa`iyr] and [~attud], denoting, according to Keil, two different kinds of goats, one, a rough-haired shaggy kind of goat, and the other, the buck-goat of stately appearance. [~Attud], which was the goat commanded here, denoted the buck-goat of noble appearance.[13]
"He shall be forgiven ..." See Leviticus 4:20.
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