Leviticus 5
After the great sin offering of Leviticus 4, the law turns to specific cases - and they are not the dramatic, headline sins. They are the ones most people would shrug off. A man hears the voice of swearing and is a witness, but will not utter it (v. 1). Someone touches an unclean thing and does not realize it until later (vv. 2-3). A person swears a rash oath with his lips and only afterward remembers what he said (v. 4). None of these is high-handed rebellion. Yet over each the verdict falls plainly - he shall be guilty - and so does the remedy: he shall confess that he hath sinned… and the priest shall make an atonement for him (vv. 5-6).3
What makes this chapter remarkable is the way it bends toward the poor. The offering is scaled to what a worshipper can actually bring. If he can afford a lamb, he brings a lamb. If he cannot, he brings two turtledoves, or two young pigeons (v. 7). And if even the birds are beyond him, he brings the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour - without oil, without frankincense, the plainest offering imaginable (v. 11). Over each step the same words are spoken: and the priest shall make an atonement for him… and it shall be forgiven him (vv. 10, 13). The forgiveness does not shrink with the price. The lamb-bringer and the flour-bringer walk away equally forgiven.
The chapter closes with the trespass offering - asham in the Hebrew - for a wrong done in the holy things of the LORD, or in unwitting breach of His commandments. Here the worshipper brings a ram without blemish, but the law asks more than a sacrifice: he must make amends for the harm he has done and add the fifth part thereto (vv. 15-16). The wrong is not merely confessed; it is righted, and then some. And once again the refrain falls, as steady as a heartbeat through the whole chapter: and it shall be forgiven him (vv. 16, 18). Five times Leviticus 5 promises forgiveness to the one who comes - a chapter grave about guilt and surer still about grace.2
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
Leviticus 5:1-6He Shall Confess That He Hath Sinned
1And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity. 2Or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcase of an unclean beast, or a carcase of unclean cattle, or the carcase of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him; he also shall be unclean, and guilty. 3Or if he touch the uncleanness of man, whatsoever uncleanness it be that a man shall be defiled withal, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty. 4Or if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man shall pronounce with an oath, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these. 5And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing: 6And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD for his sin which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats, for a sin offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin.
The chapter opens with a sin of silence: if a soul… hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity (v. 1). The setting is a courtroom one. A solemn charge has gone out - the voice of swearing, a public adjuration calling on anyone with knowledge to come forward - and a person who saw or knew something simply holds his peace. He has told no lie; he has only declined to speak the truth he carries. And the law counts that omission as real guilt: he shall bear his iniquity. It is a striking place to begin. The first case in the chapter is not theft or violence but a failure to do the good a person was in a position to do. Silence in the face of what one knows is not neutral here. To withhold the testimony that justice required is itself to sin - a quiet reminder that the things we leave undone can weigh as heavily before God as the things we do.
The next two cases shift from what a person refuses to do to what he does without realizing it: if a soul touch any unclean thing… and if it be hidden from him; he also shall be unclean, and guilty (vv. 2-3). Someone brushes against the carcase of an unclean animal, or contracts the uncleanness that came from contact with a person - and at the time he does not even know it. The defilement is real whether or not he is aware of it. But the accountability arrives with the knowledge: when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty. This is a tender and exacting truth. The uncleanness was there all along, clinging quietly; the moment of knowing is the moment he must act. The law does not pretend the contact never happened, nor does it crush a man for what he could not have known. It waits for awareness and then calls for a response. What you could not see did not condemn you while it was hidden; but once you see it, the way forward is no longer to ignore it.3
The third case is the rash word: if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to do evil, or to do good… and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty (v. 4). A person blurts out an oath - binding himself, in the heat of a moment, to some course good or ill - and then it slips his mind, or he never weighed what he was saying. An oath, though, is no light thing; words spoken before God carry weight, and a vow made carelessly is still a vow made. The phrase pronouncing with his lips puts the finger exactly on it: this is the sin of the unguarded tongue, the promise tossed off without thought. As with the hidden uncleanness, guilt comes home when he knoweth of it - the moment he remembers and understands what he has done. Three cases now stand side by side: the witness who said too little, the man defiled without knowing, and the man who said too much. Together they map the territory of the sins we overlook - not the ones we boast of or brood over, but the ones that slip past us until conscience catches up.
For all three cases the law lays out a single path back, and it begins not with a sacrifice but with a word: when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing (v. 5). Before the animal is ever brought, the worshipper must confess - name the wrong, own it out loud, place himself honestly before God. Only then does the offering follow: he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD for his sin which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats, for a sin offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin (v. 6). Two movements are bound together here: the worshipper's confession and the priest's atonement. The one who sinned does not pretend, does not minimize, does not slip the offering in while looking away; he speaks the truth about himself first. And then the priest makes an atonement - the act that covers the sin over, so it no longer stands between the person and the LORD. Confession and covering, the honest word and the gracious act, belong together. The chapter will hold these two side by side again and again.
Leviticus 5:7-13And It Shall Be Forgiven Him
7And if he be not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring for his trespass, which he hath committed, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, unto the LORD; one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering. 8And he shall bring them unto the priest, who shall offer that which is for the sin offering first, and wring off his head from his neck, but shall not divide it asunder: 9And he shall sprinkle of the blood of the sin offering upon the side of the altar; and the rest of the blood shall be wrung out at the bottom of the altar: it is a sin offering. 10And he shall offer the second for a burnt offering, according to the manner: and the priest shall make an atonement for him for his sin which he hath sinned, and it shall be forgiven him. 11But if he be not able to bring two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, then he that sinned shall bring for his offering the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering; he shall put no oil upon it, neither shall he put any frankincense thereon: for it is a sin offering. 12Then shall he bring it to the priest, and the priest shall take his handful of it, even a memorial thereof, and burn it on the altar, according to the offerings made by fire unto the LORD: it is a sin offering. 13And the priest shall make an atonement for him as touching his sin that he hath sinned in one of these, and it shall be forgiven him: and the remnant shall be the priest's, as a meat offering.
Here the chapter does something quietly extraordinary. Having named the offering - a lamb or a kid of the goats - the law immediately turns to the worshipper who cannot reach it: And if he be not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring… two turtledoves, or two young pigeons (v. 7). The standard offering is a flock animal, no small expense for a poor household. So the law bends. The man with little brings birds instead, far cheaper and within reach of nearly anyone. Notice what does not change: it is still a true sin offering, still brought unto the LORD, still answered by atonement. Only the cost has been lowered. The gravity of the sin is not reduced because the worshipper is poor, and the forgiveness is not thinned because the offering was cheap. The law simply refuses to let poverty become a wall between a person and the mercy of God. Whatever a man can bring, he is told to bring - and the door stays open. There is something deeply pastoral in this provision: the LORD will not price the poor out of forgiveness.
Then the law bends lower still, to the very poorest: But if he be not able to bring two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, then he that sinned shall bring for his offering the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour (v. 11). If even a pair of birds is beyond his means, a couple of handfuls of flour will do. And it is the plainest flour possible: he shall put no oil upon it, neither shall he put any frankincense thereon. Oil and frankincense were what made an offering rich and fragrant; this offering goes without them - nothing added, nothing to dress it up. The priest takes his handful of it, even a memorial thereof, and burns it on the altar (v. 12), and it is reckoned a sin offering exactly like the lamb and the birds before it. Think of how far the law has now stooped. It began with a flock animal and has come down to a fistful of bare flour - and over that fistful it pronounces the same word it pronounced over the lamb. The reach of this mercy is the point. There is no one so poor that he has nothing to bring; and there is no offering so small, brought in faith, that the LORD will turn it away.1
Through this whole section runs a single refrain, and it is the most important phrase in the chapter: and it shall be forgiven him (vv. 10, 13). It lands on the bird offering and again on the flour offering - the same five words, the same promise, regardless of what was brought. This is the assurance the law keeps holding out: the worshipper who comes God's way does not leave in doubt. The sin that was confessed and covered is forgiven - no longer counted against him, no longer standing between him and the LORD. And the equality is the wonder of it. Read the section again and watch the offering shrink - lamb, then birds, then a handful of flour - while the result holds perfectly steady: it shall be forgiven him… it shall be forgiven him. The poorest worshipper, bringing the cheapest offering the law allowed, received exactly the same forgiveness as the richest. Grace was never rationed by the price of the gift. What mattered was that the person came, confessed, and brought what he had - and to every such person the LORD said the same thing.
Leviticus 5:14-19A Trespass in the Holy Things
14And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 15If a soul commit a trespass, and sin through ignorance, in the holy things of the LORD; then he shall bring for his trespass unto the LORD a ram without blemish out of the flocks, with thy estimation by shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for a trespass offering: 16And he shall make amends for the harm that he hath done in the holy thing, and shall add the fifth part thereto, and give it unto the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him. 17And if a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the LORD; though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity. 18And he shall bring a ram without blemish out of the flock, with thy estimation, for a trespass offering, unto the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance wherein he erred and wist it not, and it shall be forgiven him. 19It is a trespass offering: he hath certainly trespassed against the LORD.
A fresh word from the LORD opens the chapter's final movement and introduces a new category of wrong: If a soul commit a trespass, and sin through ignorance, in the holy things of the LORD (vv. 14-15). This is no longer about the silent witness or the rash oath. It is about an encroachment on what is sacred - using, eating, or withholding something set apart for God, perhaps a tithe unpaid or a consecrated thing treated as common - and again it is done through ignorance, without the person realizing at the time what he had touched. The remedy is weighty: he shall bring for his trespass unto the LORD a ram without blemish out of the flocks, with thy estimation by shekels of silver. The ram is to be a sound, unblemished animal, and its worth is reckoned by the sanctuary standard. What stands out is the seriousness the holy commands. To trespass on what belongs to God is not a small administrative slip to be quietly forgotten; it calls for a real offering, brought in earnest. Holy things remain holy whether or not a person noticed them as such - and the law treats them with exactly that gravity.
But the trespass offering asks something the sin offering did not: the wrong must be repaired, not merely covered. And he shall make amends for the harm that he hath done in the holy thing, and shall add the fifth part thereto, and give it unto the priest (v. 16). First the worshipper restores what was lost or misused - he makes the holy thing whole again. Then he adds a fifth on top, a full twenty percent beyond the harm done. Why the surplus? Because a wrong against what is sacred is more than a debt to be balanced to zero; it calls for restoration with something added, an honest acknowledgment that what was violated deserved better than mere repayment. Only with the harm made good and the fifth added does the ram complete the work: the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him. Notice the shape of it. Atonement and amends go together. The offering does not let a person off from setting right what he disturbed; it joins the sacrifice to real restitution. To be forgiven is, here, also to make the wrong good - and then some.1
The chapter closes by pressing the point home for the sin that no one would ever catch: And if a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the LORD; though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity (v. 17). The phrase though he wist it not - though he did not know it - is the heart of the matter. A breach of God's commandments is a breach whether or not the offender ever becomes aware of it; the guilt is real even when the conscience is quiet. And so the same ram is brought, and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance wherein he erred and wist it not, and it shall be forgiven him (v. 18). The final line lets the gravity and the grace stand together: It is a trespass offering: he hath certainly trespassed against the LORD (v. 19). The wrong is named without softening - he hath certainly trespassed - and yet forgiveness has just been promised in the verse before. This is mercy reaching the invisible sin, the wrong a person never saw in himself. The law does not require him to first uncover every fault before it can be covered; it provides an atonement wide enough to reach even what he could not name.
Further study
- The Hebrew text of Leviticus 5 with Rashi, Ramban, and other classical commentators side by side - useful for the verb behind “he shall confess” (yadah, v. 5), for asham (the “trespass offering” of vv. 6, 15-19), and for the graded offerings that let the poorest still bring a tenth of an ephah of fine flour (v. 11).
- Leviticus 5 ↔ Isaiah 53 · Psalm 69 · 1 John 1 · Hebrews 10Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying Leviticus 5 to the rest of Scripture - the asham / trespass offering (vv. 15-19) read alongside thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin (Isa. 53:10) and I restored that which I took not away (Ps. 69:4), and the confession-and-forgiveness pattern (vv. 5-6) read beside if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us (1 John 1:9).
- Leviticus 5 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Leviticus 5 - the legal background of the silent witness (v. 1), the graded offerings scaled to the worshipper's means (vv. 7-13), the distinction between the sin offering and the trespass offering, and the restitution “fifth part” added in verse 16.
Where this echoes in Scripture
He Shall Confess That He Hath Sinned
- 1 John 1:9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.The pattern of verses 5-6 made a promise - confession first, then a faithful and sure forgiveness.
- Proverbs 28:13He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.The confession required in verse 5 - mercy meets the one who names his sin rather than hides it.
- Psalm 32:5I acknowledged my sin unto thee... I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.The same movement as verses 5-6 - the sin acknowledged and the iniquity forgiven.
- James 5:16Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.The open acknowledgment (yadah) of verse 5 carried into the life of the gathered people.
- Leviticus 4:27-31if any one of the common people sin through ignorance... he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats... and it shall be forgiven him.The sin offering of the previous chapter, which verse 6 continues - the female from the flock for the one who sinned.
And It Shall Be Forgiven Him
- Romans 10:12-13the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.The breadth of the graded offering (vv. 7-13) - the same Lord, equally rich toward all who come.
- Luke 2:24a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.The offering of the poor named in verse 7 - what was brought when the infant Christ was presented at the temple.
- Mark 12:43-44this poor widow hath cast more in... she of her want did cast in all that she had.The heart of verses 7-13 - the small gift of the poor weighed full before God.
- James 2:5Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom?The pastoral care of verse 11 - poverty is no barrier to standing before God.
- 2 Corinthians 8:12if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.The principle behind the gradation (vv. 7, 11) - the gift is measured by what one has, not by what one lacks.
A Trespass in the Holy Things
- Isaiah 53:10-11when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin... he shall bear their iniquities.The trespass offering (asham) of verses 15-19 lifted to a Person - the soul made an offering for sin.
- Psalm 69:4then I restored that which I took not away.The amends of verse 16 carried to its furthest reach - restoring a harm one did not cause.
- Hebrews 10:17-18their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.The end toward which the repeated ram pointed (vv. 16, 18) - one amends so full that no more offering is needed.
- Luke 19:8if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.The restitution principle of verse 16 lived out - the wrong repaired, and generously beyond the loss.
- Psalm 19:12Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.The mercy of verses 17-18 - atonement reaching the sin a person never saw in himself.