Numbers 15:25

25. An atonement “In all our inquiries into the various senses wherein this term is used, and into the significance of the different ceremonies connected with the act of atonement, the fundamental meaning, to cover or conceal, must be kept in mind.” Suskind. The word occurs in its proper sense only in Genesis 6:14. In Piel usage has affixed to it the meaning “to atone.” Atonement, therefore, must be equivalent to the covering up or concealing of that which God cannot allow to appear in his presence. It is a constructive disappearance or annihilation. Thus in Jeremiah 18:23, forgiveness of sin and blotting it out are convertible expressions. With the rabbins, “to atone” means to deny existence to to deem as not being. That which creates estrangement between God and the sinner is in effect annihilated. “We cannot reasonably say that in this case the divine punitive justice terminates in nothing; on the contrary, that justice is honoured when the offerer declares that he is destitute of a covering before the holy God, and thereby acknowledges him as one who, though sinning in weakness, is exposed to the divine judgment.” Oehler. The common objection that the soul, or life, of the sacrificial animal, laden with the curse of the sinner, might not be laid upon the holy altar as his substitute is effectually answered by the consideration that through death, the wages of sin, the blood is to be viewed as pure and free from guilt. See Leviticus 1:4; Leviticus 4:20; Leviticus 12:7, notes.

For it is ignorance R.V., “error.” See Leviticus 4:2, and the concluding notes to the same chapter; also Hebrews 9:7, note.