Leviticus 5:1-6
When a person becomes aware of covenant guilt, God requires confession and a sin offering to restore fellowship with Him.
1 “ ‘If anyone sins, in that he hears a public adjuration to testify, he being a witness, whether he has seen or known, if he doesn’t report it, then he shall bear his iniquity.
2 “ ‘Or if anyone touches any unclean thing, whether it is the carcass of an unclean animal, or the carcass of unclean livestock, or the carcass of unclean creeping things, and it is hidden from him, and he is unclean, then he shall be guilty.
3 “ ‘Or if he touches the uncleanness of man, whatever his uncleanness is with which he is unclean, and it is hidden from him; when he knows of it, then he shall be guilty.
4 “ ‘Or if anyone swears rashly with his lips to do evil or to do good—whatever it is that a man might utter rashly with an oath, and it is hidden from him—when he knows of it, then he will be guilty of one of these.
5 It shall be, when he is guilty of one of these, he shall confess that in which he has sinned;
6 and he shall bring his trespass offering to Yahweh for his sin which he has sinned: a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin.
When a person becomes aware of covenant guilt, God requires confession and a sin offering to restore fellowship with Him.
This passage identifies specific situations in which a person becomes guilty before the LORD and prescribes the required response of confession and sacrifice. It clarifies that certain failures of testimony, contact with impurity, or careless oaths bring real covenant guilt that must be addressed through a sin offering.
Leviticus 5:1-6 follows the broad purification offering cases in Leviticus 4. Leviticus 4 moved through categories of offender: anointed priest, whole community, leader, and ordinary individual. Leviticus 5 now gives specific scenarios involving ordinary Israelites and clarifies the need for confession when guilt becomes known. The passage serves as a bridge between the individual purification offering of Leviticus 4:27-35 and the scaled offering provisions for poorer worshipers in Leviticus 5:7-13.
Leviticus 5:1-6 belongs to Israel's wilderness tabernacle instruction and continues the purification offering laws for specific cases of guilt among ordinary Israelites. Israel is the LORD's redeemed covenant people, living with the holy God dwelling in their midst. Their speech, testimony, bodily contact, and vows must be governed by holiness. The guilty person confesses the sin committed and brings a female lamb or goat from the flock as a sin offering. The priest makes atonement for the sinner. The instruction concerns individual Israelites who incur guilt through failure to testify, contact with uncleanness, or rash speech, and the priests who mediate atonement. Israel's covenant life included legal testimony, purity boundaries, and oath-bound speech. The sanctuary system provided a way for guilt to be acknowledged and atoned when such failures became known. The passage follows the general individual purification offering and introduces specific cases that will be followed by scaled offering provisions, showing both holiness and mercy in Israel's sacrificial order.
Confession, Cleansing, and Guilt Before the LORD
The holy God exposes hidden guilt, requires honest confession, provides merciful access to atonement, and insists that wrongs against Him be repaired.