The big picture
This chapter shifts from classes of people to particular liabilities: withheld testimony, unnoticed contact with uncleanness, careless oaths, misuse of holy things, and offenses whose full circumstances may remain uncertain. Confession is tied to the actual matter, not a vague admission that everyone is imperfect. The offerings then descend an economic ladder. A person unable to bring livestock may bring birds, and someone unable to afford even those may bring flour, with forgiveness stated just as plainly. Holy property adds another dimension: the loss must be restored with an additional fifth. Sacrifice does not swallow the debt. Leviticus keeps guilt, affordability, restitution, and atonement in the same frame without letting one erase the others. The result is a chapter where responsibility becomes more specific at the same time that access to remedy becomes wider.
In this chapter
- Silence, Contact, and a Careless Promise Leviticus 5:1-6
The cases become recognizably human: a witness keeps silent when testimony is required, uncleanness goes unnoticed until later, or an oath is spoken too quickly to reckon with its consequences.
- The Ladder Reaches All the Way Down to Flour Leviticus 5:7-13
Leviticus follows inability downward until it reaches a person who cannot afford even the cheaper alternative.
- Holy Property Must Actually Be Restored Leviticus 5:14-16
Misuse of “the holy things of the LORD” cannot be settled by a sacrifice that leaves the material loss untouched.
- Not Knowing Does Not Settle the Account Leviticus 5:17-19
The closing case is difficult precisely because knowledge is incomplete.
Scripture beside the summary
Leviticus · King James Version · 19Leviticus 5:1-6
Silence, Contact, and a Careless Promise
The cases become recognizably human: a witness keeps silent when testimony is required, uncleanness goes unnoticed until later, or an oath is spoken too quickly to reckon with its consequences. Failure can come through withholding words as easily as through saying too much. The “voice of swearing” is an adjuration that calls a witness to speak, not merely overheard profanity. Once guilt in one of these matters is recognized, confession is “in that thing.” Leviticus does not settle for a general admission that everyone fails somehow. The response is tied to the particular liability. Verse 6 also shows how English offering labels can overlap, calling the animal a “trespass offering” while describing it as brought “for a sin offering.” That wording should not erase the more distinct ram-and-restitution cases later in the chapter. The law is moving through related forms of guilt, not organizing a modern glossary.
Deep dive
The first failure is silence when testimony is required. The "voice of swearing" concerns an oath or adjuration calling for a witness, not simply hearing someone use coarse language. A person who has seen or knows the matter cannot make that knowledge disappear by declining to speak. The following cases widen the field: contact with uncleanness can escape notice, while an oath can be uttered before its consequences have been considered. Speech can fail through withholding as well as through abundance.
Verse 5 gathers these cases around recognition and confession "in that thing". The response is particular because the liability is particular. Verse 6 then uses "trespass offering" while describing an animal brought "for a sin offering". That wording should not flatten the distinction between this female sheep or goat and the ram required for the holy-property cases beginning in verse 14. The chapter is moving through related forms of liability, and its English labels do not always function as perfectly separated technical headings.
Words to trace: unclean, guilty, carcase, soul, knoweth, offering
Verse-by-verse path
- Leviticus 5:1
The “voice of swearing” is a public adjuration, a curse pronounced on anyone who knows something and keeps it back, like the curse Micah’s mother laid on the thief in Judges 17:2. Proverbs 29:24 has this law in mind: he “heareth cursing, and bewrayeth it not”. To “bear his iniquity” is to carry the liability himself.
- Leviticus 5:2
Three kinds of carcase are named: the chayyah, a wild beast; the behemah, a domestic animal; and the sherets, a swarming or creeping creature. Which are unclean is not set out until chapter 11, so the law assumes the categories before it defines them.
- Leviticus 5:3
“The uncleanness of man” covers the human sources of impurity that chapters 12 to 15 will describe: childbirth, discharges, skin disease, and, in Numbers 19, a corpse. Touching them was not itself wrong. Jacob Milgrom argued that the guilt lies in forgetting and so carrying the impurity toward holy things.
- Leviticus 5:4
“Pronouncing” is bitte, to speak rashly, the verb Psalm 106:33 uses of Moses at Meribah, who “spake unadvisedly with his lips”. “To do evil, or to do good” is a pair of opposites meaning any oath at all. What is hidden from him is the weight of what he swore.
- Leviticus 5:5
“Confess” is hitvaddah, the reflexive form of a verb meaning to acknowledge or to throw, so literally to own for oneself. This is the first time Leviticus requires an offerer to say aloud what he has done, and he must name “that thing” in particular.
- Leviticus 5:6
The word the King James renders “trespass offering” here is asham, which can also mean the penalty paid, and many modern versions read “as his penalty”. The animal is the same female lamb or goat that the common person brought in 4:28 and 4:32.
Leviticus 5:1-6
King James Version1And 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.
Leviticus 5:7-13
The Ladder Reaches All the Way Down to Flour
Leviticus follows inability downward until it reaches a person who cannot afford even the cheaper alternative. If a sheep or goat is beyond reach, two birds may be brought, one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering. If even two birds are beyond reach, the provision does not stop. A measured portion of fine flour becomes the sin offering. That flour is intentionally unlike the grain offering of chapter 2: no oil and no frankincense are added because its purpose is different. A memorial portion is burned, the remainder goes to the priest, and forgiveness is stated just as plainly as in the animal cases. This particular provision contains no animal slaughter or blood application. Leviticus does not hide that exception, and neither should the reader. The poorest worshipper is not left with recognized guilt and an unreachable remedy.
Deep dive
The repeated condition is inability to afford the preceding offering. First come two birds, one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering. Then comes the person for whom even that alternative remains beyond reach. Leviticus does not stop at an affordable option for somebody else. It names another provision: a tenth of an ephah of fine flour.
This flour receives neither oil nor frankincense, distinguishing it from the grain offerings of chapter 2. Its identity is determined by the purpose of the rite, not just by the substance carried to the priest. A memorial portion is burned, the remainder belongs to the priest, and forgiveness is stated as explicitly as in the animal cases. This particular offering contains no slaughter or blood application. That fact neither abolishes blood’s importance elsewhere nor permits the exception to be quietly removed. The text’s own provision ensures that the poorest worshipper is not left with an acknowledged offense and no authorized way forward.
Words to trace: offering, priest, altar, sinned, able, atonement
Verse-by-verse path
- Leviticus 5:7
Two birds are required where one animal sufficed. Rashi explains the second as the gift, the burnt offering, following the first, which atones. A single small bird could not supply both a portion to cleanse and a portion to go up whole on the altar.
- Leviticus 5:8
The head is wrung “from his neck” but not severed, so it stays attached. In the burnt offering of 1:15 the bird’s head was taken off and burned. The Talmud (Zevachim 7b) compared the order to an advocate who goes in to plead before the gift follows.
- Leviticus 5:9
No finger touches the horns: a bird has too little blood. It is spattered on the altar’s side and then drained at the base. The Mishnah (Middot 3:1) describes a red line around the later altar marking the level above which blood for some offerings was applied and below which others went.
- Leviticus 5:10
“According to the manner” is kammishpat, according to the ordinance. Mishpat usually means judgment, but here it means the procedure already prescribed for a bird burnt offering in 1:14-17. The law points back rather than repeating itself.
- Leviticus 5:11
A tenth of an ephah is an omer, which Exodus 16:36 defines in the same terms: the daily ration of manna for one person, a couple of litres of flour. The poorest offering in Leviticus is the amount God once provided each Israelite for a day.
- Leviticus 5:12
The memorial portion here is flour alone, with nothing added. “According to the offerings made by fire” may be read in the Hebrew as “upon the fire offerings”, laid on top of the other offerings already burning on the altar.
- Leviticus 5:13
“In one of these” reaches back to the four cases of verses 1 to 4. The flour that is left goes to “the priest”, the one who officiated, where the grain offering of 2:3 went to “Aaron and his sons” as a group.
Leviticus 5:7-13
King James Version7And 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.
Leviticus 5:14-16
Holy Property Must Actually Be Restored
Misuse of “the holy things of the LORD” cannot be settled by a sacrifice that leaves the material loss untouched. The offender brings a ram, but he must also make amends for what was harmed and add one fifth to the restored value. The sanctuary shekel provides a measurable standard, so restitution is not whatever amount happens to feel sincere afterward. Leviticus keeps two actions side by side because they address two dimensions of the same trespass. The ram belongs to the priestly act of atonement; restoration repairs the actual deprivation caused to what belonged to the sanctuary. Neither substitutes for the other. That combination prevents religious ceremony from becoming an elegant way to keep what was wrongly taken or misused. Yet the end is not permanent stigma. Once the prescribed response is made, the familiar assurance returns: atonement is made and the offender is forgiven.
Deep dive
The instructions now introduce the ram associated with the trespass offering. The offense concerns the "holy things of the LORD", although no exhaustive list of possible misuses follows. The law concentrates on repairing the loss: the principal amount is restored and a fifth is added. A sacrificial act is not treated as a substitute for returning what belongs to the sanctuary.
The valuation is expressed in silver according to the sanctuary shekel. That standard gives the liability a measurable form; it is not whatever amount the offender finds emotionally convincing. The ram and the restoration perform different work within the same response. One addresses atonement through the priest, while the other repairs the material deprivation with an increment. Both matter. The chapter is precise enough to keep a religious ceremony from swallowing an unpaid obligation, and its conclusion still gives the familiar assurance of forgiveness rather than leaving the offender permanently marked by the debt.
Words to trace: trespass, LORD, holy, offering, priest, amends
Verse-by-verse path
- Leviticus 5:14
A new speech introduces the asham in its own right, the reparation offering. In the Hebrew Bible the section it opens runs on past verse 19; English Bibles begin chapter 6 in the middle of it.
- Leviticus 5:15
“Trespass” is ma’al, a breach of faith, the word for Achan taking the devoted spoil (Joshua 7:1) and for a wife’s unfaithfulness (Numbers 5:12). “Thy estimation”, erkekha, is literally “your valuation”, a second person that hardened into a technical term for an assessed value.
- Leviticus 5:16
“Make amends” is shillem, to pay in full, from the root of shalom and of shelamim. A fifth is added; the rabbis calculated it as a fifth of the total paid, which comes to a quarter of the principal. The priest receives the payment because the holy things were his to guard.
Leviticus 5:14-16
King James Version14And 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.
Leviticus 5:17-19
Not Knowing Does Not Settle the Account
The closing case is difficult precisely because knowledge is incomplete. A person may have violated one of the LORD’s commandments “though he wist it not,” and Leviticus still speaks of guilt and liability. Interpreters differ over whether the case imagines an offense discovered later or a suspected violation whose details remain uncertain, and the passage gives no example that settles the question completely. What it does settle is the response. Ignorance by itself does not close the account. A ram without blemish is brought, the priest makes atonement concerning the error committed without knowledge, and forgiveness is promised. The repeated language of trespass insists that incomplete awareness does not make the issue unreal. At the same time, the text does not invite an endless hunt for hypothetical hidden sins. It provides a definite ritual response within a defined legal setting, holding uncertainty and remedy together.
Deep dive
The difficult feature is the insistence that a person can bear iniquity "though he wist it not". Earlier cases describe an offense becoming known; this paragraph gives unusual prominence to the absence of knowledge. Interpretations differ over whether it concerns guilt recognized only later or a suspected offense whose exact occurrence remains uncertain. The text does not supply a sample incident that would settle the distinction.
What it does make clear is that ignorance alone is not the final answer to the problem. The ram is brought, the priest makes atonement for the error, and forgiveness is promised. The concluding repetition of "trespass" presses the reality of liability without furnishing grounds for inventing an endless catalogue of hidden sins. Leviticus is specifying a remedy within its own legal setting. Its sequence holds together two claims that are easy to separate: knowledge can be incomplete, and the provision for dealing with the resulting guilt can still be definite.
Words to trace: LORD, offering, priest, trespass, wist, atonement
Verse-by-verse path
- Leviticus 5:17
“Wist” is the past tense of the old verb wit, to know. Rabbinic law applied this verse to the asham talui, the “suspended” guilt offering, brought when a person was unsure whether he had done wrong, as when he could not tell whether the fat he ate was forbidden.
- Leviticus 5:18
“His ignorance wherein he erred” is a cognate pair in Hebrew, “his straying that he strayed”. A ram costs more than the female lamb brought for a known sin in verse 6, so the doubtful case is the more expensive one, a point the rabbis puzzled over.
- Leviticus 5:19
“He hath certainly trespassed” renders the Hebrew’s doubled verb, ashom asham, “guilty he is guilty”. The Hebrew chapter goes on for seven more verses, on defrauding a neighbour, which the King James numbers as 6:1-7.
Leviticus 5:17-19
King James Version17And 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.
Questions to keep in mind while reading
- Identify the people addressed and the covenant setting.
- Distinguish rescue, worship, holiness, justice, and community responsibility.
- Read commands in their literary and covenant context before making a modern application.
Text first
Where readers differ
The chapter summary begins with what the passage says and how its parts fit together. It does not assume one denomination has already settled every question. Where a conclusion depends on a tradition, literary theory, or historical reconstruction, that dependence is named openly.
The KJV text is presented first. Interpretive conclusions are labeled, and differences are introduced only when they help a reader understand why serious communities do not always reach the same answer.
Comparative interpretive notes for this chapter are in preparation. Until reviewed notes are ready, this page separates the KJV text from summary and application without claiming that serious readers agree on every question.
Questions beneath the surface
- What account of God, human freedom, responsibility, and the good life emerges from Leviticus 5?
- Which tension does the chapter refuse to resolve quickly?
- What changes when the chapter is read as part of the whole canon rather than as an isolated moral lesson?
- Where might a sincere reader confuse a familiar tradition with something the text states directly?
Questions for serious personal contemplation
These open-ended questions make room for tension, honest response, prayer, and conclusions that remain accountable to the chapter.
Observe without rushing
What part of Leviticus 5 makes you stop, feel unsettled, or feel surprised, and why?
Which detail in the passage would be easiest to overlook? How does that detail change your understanding?
Where do you see tension between what happens and this focus: Leviticus 5 develops its own movement around offering, priest, LORD, trespass, atonement?
What important question does the passage leave open instead of resolving quickly?
Examine your inner life honestly
Which person, response, fear, or desire in the passage feels most like your own life right now?
What assumption about God, other people, or yourself does this text challenge?
Which part would you rather soften, avoid, or explain away too quickly? What might that reaction reveal?
If this Scripture could ask you one direct question, what do you think it would ask?
Respond with wisdom and courage
What do you need to remember, confess, grieve, thank God for, or trust after reading this passage?
How might another faithful person read this situation differently without ignoring the text?
What obedient response would be costly, uncomfortable, or slow, yet still faithful to Scripture?
What question will you carry into prayer this week, and which verses will you keep in front of you?
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
