Leviticus 4:31

4:31 Then he must remove all of its fat (just as fat was removed from the peace offering sacrifice) and the priest must offer it up in smoke on the altar for a soothing aroma to the Lord. So the priest will make atonement ¹  on his behalf and he will be forgiven. ² 

Leviticus 4:35

4:35 Then the one who brought the offering ³  must remove all its fat (just as the fat of the sheep is removed from the peace offering sacrifice) and the priest must offer them up in smoke on the altar on top of the other gifts of the Lord. So the priest will make atonement ⁴  on his behalf for his sin which he has committed and he will be forgiven. ⁵ 

Leviticus 5:6

5:6 and he must bring his penalty for guilt ⁶  to the Lord for his sin that he has committed, a female from the flock, whether a female sheep or a female goat, for a sin offering. So the priest will make atonement ⁷  on his behalf for ⁸  his sin.

Leviticus 5:16

5:16 And whatever holy thing he violated ⁹  he must restore and must add one fifth to it and give it to the priest. So the priest will make atonement ¹⁰  on his behalf with the guilt offering ram and he will be forgiven.” ¹¹ 

Leviticus 5:18

5:18 and must bring a flawless ram from the flock, convertible into silver shekels, ¹²  for a guilt offering to the priest. So the priest will make atonement ¹³  on his behalf for his error which he committed ¹⁴  (although he himself had not known it) and he will be forgiven. ¹⁵ 

Leviticus 8:15

8:15 and he slaughtered it. ¹⁶  Moses then took the blood and put it all around on the horns of the altar with his finger and decontaminated the altar, ¹⁷  and he poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar and so consecrated it to make atonement on it. ¹⁸ 

Leviticus 10:17

10:17 “Why did you not eat the sin offering in the sanctuary? For it is most holy and he gave it to you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, ¹⁹  to make atonement on their behalf before the Lord.

Leviticus 12:8

12:8 If she cannot afford a sheep, ²⁰  then she must take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, ²¹  one for a burnt offering and one for a sin offering, and the priest is to make atonement on her behalf, and she will be clean.’” ²² 

Leviticus 14:21

The Eighth Day Atonement Rituals for the Poor Person

14:21 “If the person is poor and does not have sufficient means, ²³  he must take one male lamb as a guilt offering for a wave offering to make atonement for himself, one-tenth of an ephah of choice wheat flour mixed with olive oil for a grain offering, a log of olive oil, ²⁴ 

Leviticus 16:24

16:24 Then he must bathe his body in water in a holy place, put on his clothes, and go out and make his burnt offering and the people’s burnt offering. So he is to make atonement ²⁵  on behalf of himself and the people. ²⁶ 

Leviticus 16:27

16:27 The bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was brought to make atonement in the holy place, must be brought outside the camp ²⁷  and their hide, their flesh, and their dung must be burned up, ²⁸ 

Leviticus 16:34

16:34 This is to be a perpetual statute for you ²⁹  to make atonement for the Israelites for ³⁰  all their sins once a year.” ³¹  So he did just as the Lord had commanded Moses. ³² 

¹ sn The focus of sin offering “atonement” was purging impurities from the tabernacle (see the note on Lev 1:4).

² tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him” (KJV similar).

³ tn Heb “Then he”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here “he” refers to the offerer rather than the priest (contrast the clauses before and after).

⁴ sn The focus of sin offering “atonement” was purging impurities from the tabernacle (see the note on Lev 1:4).

⁵ tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him” (KJV similar).

⁵ tn In this context the word for “guilt” (אָשָׁם, ’asham) refers to the “penalty” for incurring guilt, the so-called consequential אָשָׁם (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:303; cf. the note on Lev 5:1).

⁶ sn The focus of sin offering “atonement” was purging impurities from the tabernacle (see the note on Lev 1:4).

⁷ tn See the note on 4:26 regarding the use of מִן (min).

⁷ tn Heb “and which he sinned from the holy thing.”

⁸ sn Regarding “make atonement” see the note on Lev 1:4.

⁹ tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him” (KJV similar).

⁹ tn The statement here is condensed. See the full expression in 5:15 and the note there.

¹⁰ sn Regarding “make atonement” see the note on Lev 1:4.

¹¹ tn Heb “on his straying which he strayed.” See the note on Lev 4:2.

¹² tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him” (KJV and NASB both similar).

¹¹ sn Contrary to some English versions (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT), Aaron (not Moses) most likely slaughtered the bull, possibly with the help of his sons, although the verb is singular, not plural. Moses then performed the ritual procedures that involved direct contact with the altar. Compare the pattern in Lev 1:5-9, where the offerer does the slaughtering and the priests perform the procedures that involve direct contact with the altar. In Lev 8 Moses is functioning as the priest in order to consecrate the priesthood. The explicit reintroduction of the name of Moses as the subject of the next verb seems to reinforce this understanding of the passage (cf. also vv. 19 and 23 below).

¹² tn The verb is the Piel of חָטָא (khata’, “to sin”) and means “to de-sin” the altar. This verse is important for confirming the main purpose of the sin offering, which was to decontaminate the tabernacle and its furniture from any impurities. See the note on Lev 4:3.

¹³ tn Similar to v. 10 above, “and consecrated it” refers to the effect of the blood manipulation earlier in the verse. The goal here was to consecrate the altar in order that it might become a place on which it would be appropriate “to make atonement” before the Lord.

¹³ sn This translation is quite literal. On the surface it appears to mean that the priests would “bear the iniquity” of the congregation by the act of eating the sin offering (so J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:622-25, 635-40). Such a notion is, however, found nowhere else in the Levitical regulations and seems unlikely (so J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 136). A more likely interpretation is reflected in this interpretive rendering: “he gave it to you [as payment] for [your work of] bearing the iniquity of the congregation.” The previous section of the chapter deals with the prebends that the priests received for performing the ministry of the tabernacle (Lev 10:12-15). Lev 10:16-18, therefore, seems to continue the very same topic in the light of the most immediate situation (see R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:702-4).

¹⁵ tn Heb “If her hand cannot find the sufficiency of a sheep.” Many English versions render this as “lamb.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “from the sons of the pigeon,” referring either to “young pigeons” or “various species of pigeon” (contrast J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:168, with J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 14; cf. Lev 1:14 and esp. 5:7-10).

¹⁷ tn Or “she will be[come] pure.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “and his hand does not reach”; NAB, NRSV “and cannot afford so much (afford these NIV).”

¹⁸ tn See the notes on v. 10 above.

¹⁹ tn Heb “And he shall make atonement.”

²⁰ tn Heb “on behalf of himself and on behalf of the people.” After “on behalf of himself” the LXX adds the expected “and on behalf of his household” (cf. vv. 6, 11, and 17).

²¹ tn Heb “he shall bring into from outside to the camp.”

²² tn Heb “they shall burn with fire”; KJV “burn in the fire.” Because “to burn with fire” is redundant in contemporary English the present translation simply has “must be burned up.”

²³ tn Heb “And this shall be for you to a statute of eternity” (cf. v. 29a above). cf. NASB “a permanent statute”; NIV “a lasting ordinance.”

²⁴ tn Heb “from”; see note on 4:26.

²⁵ tn Heb “one [feminine] in the year.”

²⁶ tn The MT of Lev 16:34b reads literally, “and he did just as the Lord had commanded Moses.” This has been retained here in spite of the fact that it suggests that Aaron immediately performed the rituals outlined in Lev 16 (see, e.g., J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 224 and 243; J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:1059; note that Aaron was the one to whom Moses was to speak the regulations in this chapter, v. 2). The problem is that the chapter presents these procedures as regulations for “the tenth day of the seventh month” and calls for their fulfillment at that time (Lev 16:29; cf. Lev 23:26-32 and the remarks in P. J. Budd, Leviticus [NCBC], 237), not during the current (first) month (Exod 40:2; note also that they left Sinai in the second month, long before the next seventh month, Num 10:11). The LXX translates, “once in the year it shall be done as the Lord commanded Moses,” attaching “once in the year” to this clause rather than the former one, and rendering the verb as passive, “it shall be done” (cf. NAB, NIV, etc.). We have already observed the passive use of active verbs in this context (see the note on v. 32 above). The RSV (cf. also the NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT) translates, “And Moses did as the Lord commanded him,” ignoring the fact that the name Moses in the Hebrew text has the direct object indicator. Passive verbs, however, regularly take subjects with direct object indicators (see, e.g., v. 27 above). The NIV renders it “And it was done, as the Lord commanded Moses,” following the LXX passive translation. The NASB translates, “And just as the Lord had commanded Moses, so he did,” transposing the introductory verb to the end of the sentence and supplying “so” in order to make it fit the context.