Leviticus 5:14

"And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, If any one commit a trespass, and sin unwittingly, in the holy things of Jehovah; then he shall bring his trespass-offering unto Jehovah, a ram without blemish out of the flock, according to thy estimation in silver by shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for a trespass-offering: and he shall make restitution for that which he hath done amiss in the holy thing, and shall add the fifth part thereto, and give it unto the priest; and the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass-offering, and he shall be forgiven."

The solemn formula, "And Jehovah spake unto Moses," occurs thirty-nine times in Leviticus. We deplore the high-handed manner in which some commentators ignore this declaration, pretending not even to see it, and then dare to assign whole sections of this book to unnamed, imaginary sources dated anywhere between the times of the Judges and the days following the exile. Such writings are in no sense Biblical commentary, but merely denials of what the Word of God says. Again, and again, this formal expression introduces sections and divisions in Leviticus, and the section beginning here deals with trespass-offerings.

"If one commit a trespass ... in the holy things of Jehovah ..." The careless neglect of paying tithes, or the inadvertent offering of an unsuitable animal for sacrifice, and other types of sins would fall under this category. The penalty was next to the largest imposed by the sacrifices, a ram of the flock being a property of considerable value.

Furthermore, the appraisal of the ram was not left to the offerer but was to be made by the priests; and the mention of "shekels" in the plural indicated that it had to be of more than ordinary value. Two conditions were imposed in connection with this type of sacrifice, these being: (1) that a confession of sin was required, and (2) that restitution including a twenty percent penalty was demanded.

Regarding the name of the sacrifice here called trespass-offering, it is called guilt-offering in some versions; and Wenham cited examples of its being called "reparation-offering" and "compensation-offering."[12] Although certain cases must have been very difficult to decide, as to whether a sin-offering or a trespass-offering was demanded, the vital distinction between the two sacrifices was primarily discernible in what each typified. "The sin-offering typified expiation wrought upon the cross of Jesus, and the trespass-offering typified the satisfaction for sin effected by the perfect life and voluntary death of the Saviour."[13] As Jamieson expressed it:

"The leading idea symbolized by the trespass-offering was not expiation, but compensation, or restitution of a debt due to Jehovah as King of Israel. Not the subjective forgiveness, but the objective wrong done to God's possession here is under consideration."[14]

It should not be overlooked that the type of trespasses here was primarily sins of omission.

"After the shekel of the sanctuary ..." This was heavier than the ordinary shekel and of more value. All money in those days was calculated by the weight of precious metals. "Coinage did not begin in Palestine prior to the fourth century B.C."[15]