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Read the Bible
The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible
Leviticus 4:2
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- CondensedContextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
through: Leviticus 5:15, Leviticus 5:17, Numbers 15:22-29, Deuteronomy 19:4, 1 Samuel 14:27, Psalms 19:12, 1 Timothy 1:13, Hebrews 5:2, Hebrews 9:7
which ought: Leviticus 4:27, Genesis 20:9, James 3:10
Reciprocal: Genesis 34:7 - thing Leviticus 4:13 - through ignorance Leviticus 4:22 - and done Leviticus 6:25 - the law Numbers 6:14 - one ewe Ezekiel 40:39 - the sin Hebrews 10:26 - if James 2:11 - Now
Cross-References
Therefore the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
And Adam again had relations with his wife, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, "God has granted me another seed in place of Abel, since Cain killed him."
And to Seth also a son was born, and he called him Enosh. At that time men began to invoke the name of the LORD.
Now Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard.
Israel said to him, "Are not your brothers pasturing the flocks at Shechem? Get ready; I am sending you to them." "I am ready," Joseph replied.
"What is your occupation?" Pharaoh asked Joseph's brothers. "Your servants are shepherds," they replied, "both we and our fathers."
Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Children are indeed a heritage from the LORD, and the fruit of the womb is His reward.
But the LORD took me from following the flock and said to me, 'Go, prophesy to My people Israel.'
from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, all of it will be charged to this generation.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Speak unto the children of Israel, [saying],.... For this law concerning the sin offering, as the rest, only belonged to them, and such as were proselyted to them:
if a soul should sin through ignorance; sin is from the soul, though committed by the body; it is the soul that sins, Ezekiel 18:4 it includes, as Aben Ezra observes, both Israelites and proselytes; who sinned through ignorance either of the law, that such things were forbidden, or of having committed them, they being done unobserved, and through inadvertency; or were forgotten that they were done, or were done through error and mistake; these sins are what the apostle calls the errors of the people, their strayings out of the way through ignorance and inadvertency, Hebrews 5:2 such sins as a man is overtaken with unawares, and is drawn into at once through temptation and the prevalence of corruption; these are the errors and secret faults which David distinguishes from presumptuous sins,
Psalms 19:12:
against any of the commandments of the Lord ([concerning things] which ought not to be done.) The Jewish writers m distinguish the commandments of the Lord into affirmative and negative, and make their number to be six hundred and thirteen; two hundred and forty eight are affirmative, according to the number of bones in a man's body, and three hundred sixty five are negative ones, according to the number of the days of the year; and they observe n, it is only the transgression of negative precepts that is here meant, and for which a sin offering was to be brought:
and shall do against any of them; it must be something done, and not merely said: hence the Jews o say, that as the neglect of circumcision, and of the passover, does not come under this law, because they are affirmative precepts; so neither blasphemy, because there is nothing done, only something said: of these sins of ignorance, they give instances as follows; if any man eats the fat that is about the kidneys, thinking it is the fat that is about the heart; or that lies with a woman forbidden by the law, thinking her to be his wife; or that commits idolatry, by bowing to the idol, thinking that the law forbids sacrifice, incense, and libation, but not bowing; or that profanes the sabbath, thinking it is a common day p.
m T. Bab. Maccot, fol. 23. 2. n Maimon. in Misn. Horayot, c. 2. sect. 3. Bartenora in Misn. Ceritot, c. 1. sect. 1. Gersom in loc. o Misn. Ceritot, c. 1. sect. 2. & Bartenora in ib. Maimon. Hilchot Shegagot, c. 1. sect. 2. p Maimon & Bartenora in Misn. Ceritot, ib.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
And the Lord spake ... Israel - This formula is the commencement of a distinct section of the Law.
Leviticus 4:2
If a soul shall sin - The sin-offering was a new thing, instituted by the Law. The older kinds of sacrifice Leviticus 2:1; Leviticus 3:1 when offered by individuals were purely voluntary: no special occasions were prescribed. But it was plainly commanded that he who was conscious that he had committed a sin should bring his sin-offering. In the abridged rules for sin-offerings in Numbers 15:22-31, the kind of sin for which sin-offerings were accepted is contrasted with that which cut off the perpetrator from among his people (compare Leviticus 4:22 with Leviticus 4:30). The two classes are distinguished in the language of our Bible as sin through ignorance and presumptuous sin. The distinction is clearly recognized in Psalms 19:12-13 and Hebrews 10:26-27. It seems evident that the classification thus indicated refers immediately to the relation of the conscience to God, not to outward practices, nor, immediately, to outward actions.
The presumptuous sinner, literally he who sinned “with a high hand,” might or might not have committed such a crime as to incur punishment from the civil law: it was enough that he had with deliberate purpose rebelled against God (see Proverbs 2:13-15), and ipso facto was “cut off from among his people” and alienated from the divine covenant (see Leviticus 7:20; Exodus 31:14; compare Matthew 12:31; 1 John 5:16). But the other kind of sin, that for which the sin-offering was appointed, was of a more complicated nature. It appears to have included the entire range of “sins, negligences and ignorances” for which we are accustomed to ask forgiveness. sin-offerings were required not only when the conscience accused the offender of having yielded to temptation, but sometimes for what were breaches of the Law committed strictly in ignorance Leviticus 4:13, Leviticus 4:23, Leviticus 4:28; Leviticus 5:17, and sometimes on account of ceremonial pollution. They are thus to be regarded as protests against everything which is opposed to the holiness and purity of the divine Law. They were, in short, to be offered by the worshipper as a relief to the conscience whenever he felt the need of atonement.
Sin through ignorance - Sin through error; that is, through straying from the right way. See Psalms 119:67; Ecclesiastes 5:6.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Leviticus 4:2. If a soul shall sin through ignorance — That is, if any man shall do what God has forbidden, or leave undone what God has commanded, through ignorance of the law relative to these points; as soon as the transgression or omission comes to his knowledge, he shall offer the sacrifice here prescribed, and shall not suppose that his ignorance is an excuse for his sin. He who, when his iniquity comes to his knowledge, refuses to offer such a sacrifice, sins obstinately and wilfully, and to him there remains no other sacrifice for sin - no other mode by which he can be reconciled to God, but he has a certain fearful looking for of judgment - which shall devour such adversaries; and this seems the case to which the apostle alludes, Hebrews 10:26, &c., in the words above quoted. There have been a great number of subtle questions started on this subject, both by Jews and Christians, but the above I believe to be the sense and spirit of the law.
