Leviticus 4:3-12

Sin Offering of the High Priest. Inadvertences at the altar, which would, if unatoned for, have the most dangerous consequences for the whole community. The anointed priest is the High Priest (Leviticus 6:22; Leviticus 8:12; Leviticus 8:30; Leviticus 21:10). He is the representative of the whole people; his guilt or error is therefore theirs. There is no choice of animals here, as in Leviticus 3. The chief part of the rite is the presentation of the blood, the life of the animal, to Yahweh. It is brought to the tent of meeting, i.e. the actual shrine of the sanctuary, where alone Yahweh meets with the priest. The more important the offence and the offerer, the nearer the blood must be brought to Yahweh; hence, in this case, sprinkling on the altar would not be enough. The priest stands with the blood inside the outer compartment of the shrine, and sprinkles the blood upon the curtain that separates the outer from the inner compartment the latter being regarded as the special abode of the Shekinah, or glory of Yahweh on earth. (For the seven-fold sprinkling, cf. Joshua 6:15; 2 Kings 5:10.) The analogy with the special rite of Leviticus 16 is clear; but nothing is said in Leviticus 16 of the altar of incense; in Exodus 30:10, the sprinkling on the altar of incense is mentioned in connexion with the Day of Atonement, but its use is restricted to that rite. Probably, therefore, unlike the altar, it was within the shrine. Not even the priests may eat of this sacrifice; they are involved in the sin. The duty of burning the carcase belongs to the High Priest himself; but in the text of the LXX and Sam. it is assigned to the priests. The clean place to which the carcase is taken may possibly be a euphemism.