Leviticus 5:1

Additional Sin Offering Regulations

5:1 “‘When a person sins ¹  in that he hears a public curse against one who fails to testify ²  and he is a witness (he either saw or knew what had happened ³ ) and he does not make it known, ⁴  then he will bear his punishment for iniquity. ⁵ 

Leviticus 5:17

Unknown trespass

5:17 “If a person sins and violates any of the Lord’s commandments which must not be violated ⁶  (although he did not know it at the time, ⁷  but later realizes he is guilty), then he will bear his punishment for iniquity ⁸ 

Leviticus 20:19-20

20:19 You must not expose the nakedness of your mother’s sister and your father’s sister, for such a person has laid bare his own close relative. ⁹  They must bear their punishment for iniquity. ¹⁰  20:20 If a man has sexual intercourse with his aunt, he has exposed his uncle’s nakedness; they must bear responsibility for their sin, they will die childless.

Leviticus 22:9

22:9 They must keep my charge so that they do not incur sin on account of it ¹¹  and therefore die ¹²  because they profane it. I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

Numbers 9:13

9:13 But ¹³  the man who is ceremonially clean, and was not on a journey, and fails ¹⁴  to keep the Passover, that person must be cut off from his people. ¹⁵  Because he did not bring the Lord’s offering at its appointed time, that man must bear his sin. ¹⁶ 

Numbers 18:22

18:22 No longer may the Israelites approach the tent of meeting, or else they will bear their sin ¹⁷  and die.

Matthew 22:12-13

22:12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ But he had nothing to say. ¹⁸  22:13 Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!’

[5:1]  ¹ tn Heb “And a person when he sins.” Most English versions translate this as the protasis of a conditional clause: “if a person sins” (NASB, NIV).

[5:1]  ² tn The words “against one who fails to testify” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied to make sense of the remark about the “curse” (“imprecation” or “oath”; cf. ASV “adjuration”; NIV “public charge”) for the modern reader. For the interpretation of this verse reflected in the present translation see J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:292-97.

[5:1]  ³ tn The words “what had happened” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.

[5:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “and hears a voice of curse, and he is a witness or he saw or he knew, if he does not declare.”

[5:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he shall bear his iniquity.” The rendering “bear the punishment (for the iniquity)” reflects the use of the word “iniquity” to refer to the punishment for iniquity (cf. NRSV, NLT “subject to punishment”). It is sometimes referred to as the consequential use of the term (cf. Lev 5:17; 7:18; 10:17; etc.).

[5:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “and does one from all of the commandments of the Lord which must not be done.”

[5:17]  ⁷ tn The words “at the time” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.

[5:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he did not know, and he shall be guilty and he shall bear his iniquity” (for the rendering “bear his punishment [for iniquity]”) see the note on Lev 5:1.) This portion of v. 17 is especially difficult. The translation offered here suggests (as in many other English versions) that the offender did not originally know that he had violated the Lord’s commandments, but then came to know it and dealt with it accordingly (cf. the corresponding sin offering section in Lev 5:1-4). Another possibility is that it refers to a situation where a person suspects that he violated something although he does not recollect it. Thus, he brings a guilt offering for his suspected violation (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:331-34, 361-63). See also R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 1:561-62.

[20:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “his flesh.”

[20:19]  ¹⁰ tn See the note on Lev 17:16 above.

[22:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and they will not lift up on it sin.” The pronoun “it” (masculine) apparently refers to any item of food that belongs to the category of “holy offerings” (see above).

[22:9]  ¹² tn Heb “and die in it.”

[9:13]  ¹³ tn The disjunctive vav (ו) signals a contrastive clause here: “but the man” on the other hand….

[9:13]  ¹⁴ tn The verb חָדַל (khadal) means “to cease; to leave off; to fail.” The implication here is that it is a person who simply neglects to do it. It does not indicate that he forgot, but more likely that he made the decision to leave it undone.

[9:13]  ¹⁵ sn The pronouncement of such a person’s penalty is that his life will be cut off from his people. There are at least three possible interpretations for this: physical death at the hand of the community (G. B. Gray, Numbers [ICC], 84-85), physical and/or spiritual death at the hand of God (J. Milgrom, “A Prolegomenon to Lev 17:11,” JBL 90 [1971]: 154-55), or excommunication or separation from the community (R. A. Cole, Exodus [TOTC], 109). The direct intervention of God seem to be the most likely in view of the lack of directions for the community to follow. Excommunication from the camp in the wilderness would have been tantamount to a death sentence by the community, and so there really are just two views.

[9:13]  ¹⁶ tn The word for “sin” here should be interpreted to mean the consequences of his sin (so a metonymy of effect). Whoever willingly violates the Law will have to pay the consequences.

[18:22]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive construct of the verb “to bear” with the lamed (ל) preposition to express the result of such an action. “To bear their sin” would mean that they would have to suffer the consequences of their sin.

[22:12]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “he was silent.”