Leviticus 5:1

The first thirteen verses of this chapter are a continuation of the divine instructions regarding sin-offerings outlined in the previous chapter. Special situations in which sin-offerings were required are listed as follows:

(1) the failure to give testimony (Leviticus 5:1);

(2) incurring uncleanness by touching an unclean object or an unclean person (Leviticus 5:2,3);

(3) making a rash vow (Leviticus 5:4). The required sin-offering is outlined (Leviticus 5:5,6).

Leviticus 5:7-13 are a kind of appendix in which special provisions were given for the benefit of persons wishing to comply with the law but who, through poverty, were unable to bring the prescribed offerings.

The trespass-offering is presented in Leviticus 5:14-19, being formally introduced by the solemn formula, "And Jehovah spake unto Moses ... etc." The principal difference between the sin-offering and the trespass-offering (which are sometimes confused) was that in the latter, restitution was required whenever possible and a twenty percent penalty was added. Another difference is seen in that confession was required. There were three particular cases where this offering was required, two of them in this chapter, and a third one in Leviticus 6:2-7. The two in this chapter are: (1) failure to discharge religious duties (Leviticus 5:14-16), and (2) unintentional, ignorant violations of God's law in situations where no restitution was required (Leviticus 5:17-19).

The trespass-offering featured in this chapter is also called the guilt-offering, but we shall use the designation in our version (American Standard Version). The use of "trespass-offering" in Leviticus 5:7 is not sufficient reason to include that paragraph as part of the instructions beginning in Leviticus 5:14, because the formal pronouncement, "And Jehovah spake unto Moses ... etc." identifies that verse as the place where instructions on the trespass-offering actually begin. It was closely connected with the sin-offering, and the two appear together in the Word of God.

This chapter and also Leviticus 4 show how haphazard the common division into chapters and verses actually is. If any logical system had been followed, Leviticus 5 should have started at Leviticus 5:14 and ended at Leviticus 6:7. Chapter divisions, of course, are purely man-made devices that were introduced six or eight centuries ago.

"And if any one sin, in that he heareth the voice of adjuration, he being a witness, whether he hath seen or known, if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity. Or if any one touch any unclean thing, whether it be the carcass of an unclean beast, or the carcass of unclean cattle, or the carcass of unclean creeping things, and it be hidden from him, and he be unclean, then he shall be guilty. Or if he touch the uncleanness of man, whatsoever his uncleanness be wherewith he is unclean, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty. Or if any one swear rashly with his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man utter rashly with an oath, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth it, then he shall be guilty in one of these things. And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that wherein he hath sinned: and he shall bring his trespass-offering unto Jehovah for his sin which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin-offering: and the priest shall make atonement for him as concerning his sin."

"He that heareth the voice of adjuration ... etc." (Leviticus 5:1) Our version (American Standard Version) here makes the offense to be that of failure to come forward and give testimony in a court procedure following a public "adjuration" with the pronouncement of a curse upon any one having pertinent knowledge needed by the court, which knowledge is in the possession of the witness who fails to divulge it. The Revised Standard Version also follows this rendition. Noth disputed this meaning and rendered it so as to say, "He that hears someone curse publicly" is the offender.[1] Ronald E. Clements also accepted that understanding of the passage,[2] but Keil effectively refuted such ideas by pointing out that the word here rendered "adjuration" does not mean a curse in general, but an oath (a judicial oath equal to the oath of cursing in Numbers 5:21). The sin referred to did not consist in the fact that a person heard a curse, or blasphemy, and gave no evidence of it."[3] Keil is most certainly correct in this, because the N.T. usage of "adjuration" places it, not on the street, but in a court of law. In Matthew 26:63, Jesus is said to have answered Caiaphas not a word, until the high priest placed Jesus under judicial oath by the accepted formula, saying, "I adjure thee, by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou art the Christ, the Son of God." The illegal usage of this type of adjuration by the sons of Sceva (Acts 19:13), and by the demons who addressed Jesus (Mark 5:7) does not nullify the identification of "adjuration" with court proceedings.

The principle enunciated in these verses is profoundly important. Any person having vital information regarding either the innocence or the guilt of an accused person, when placed under judicial oath, is required to divulge it under penalty of the wrath of God for failure, and, despite the fact of the old law having long ago been nailed to the cross of Christ, the moral kernel around which the law was built still exists and is binding today.

Both the old schools of commentators and modern Jewish scholars accept without reservation the position which we are attempting to maintain regarding this transgression. Jamieson wrote:

"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. The manner in which witnesses were interrogated in Jewish courts of justice was not by swearing them in directly, but by adjuring them. The offence, then, for the expiation of which this law provides, was that of a person who neglected or avoided the opportunity to testify."[4]

Also, Bernard J. Bamberger, a recent Jewish writer, gives this:

Someone engaged in a lawsuit (or perhaps the court) publicly calls on those who have information about the case to appear and testify, and a curse is invoked on any one (having knowledge of it) who fails to respond.[5]

A second specific situation in which a sin-offering was required (Leviticus 5:2,3) was that of a person who unwittingly, or without his knowledge, became polluted by touching either an unclean object or an unclean person. Some have expressed wonder as to how such violations could have occurred, but it was quite common. For example, if one stepped upon a grave unintentionally, he was unclean by virtue of that action. In those times, when graves were not to be found exclusively in cemeteries, there were many who violated without any intention of it. From this arose the custom of white-washing graves, as was done extensively in the days of Jesus Christ, a custom to which he referred when he called the Pharisees, "whited sepulchres!" (Matthew 23:27-29). Also, in the case of unclean animals, the touch could have come about through the movement or action of the animal, not by the one touched, being therefore an unintentional violation.

The third violation requiring a sacrifice (Leviticus 5:4-6) was that of failing to fulfill or discharge the obligation incurred in making a rash vow. The purpose of this was to guard the devout worshipper against the folly of loose or foolish talk, especially when accompanied by an oath. It will be remembered that in Jonah's prayer from the belly of the great fish, he promised, "I will pay that which I have vowed" (Jonah 2:9).

The appearance of the word "trespass-offering (or guilt-offering)" in Leviticus 5:6, here, has led some to classify these regulations (Leviticus 5:1-13) with the trespass-offerings announced in Leviticus 5:14, but we believe that to be a mistake. "The Hebrew word here does not mean trespass-offering, but as his guilt (or as his trespass) and refers to the trespass or guilt of the violator, not to his offering."[6] This fact is noted in the American Standard Version margin, where the alternate rendition "for his guilt" is given, and despite the fact of Allis' calling this "doubtful,"[7] there is actually no alternative to the acceptance of it. The formal announcement of the trespass-offering in Leviticus 5:14 requires this understanding of it. Not to accept this would be to make the words trespass-offering and sin-offering (in the same Leviticus 5:6) to be understood as synonyms, "which is very unlikely, when they are immediately afterward carefully distinguished (Leviticus 5:14)."[8]