Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 4:4
And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD; and shall lay his hand upon the bullock’s head, and kill the bullock before the LORD.
4 7. Cp. Lev 4:14-18. The first part of the ceremonial is like that of the Burnt-Offering. The disposal of the blood is different: the priest dips his finger into the blood, which has been caught in a bowl, and sprinkles it seven times before the veil of the sanctuary, i.e. the veil between the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place. He then puts some of the blood on the horns of the altar of incense with the finger (for each sprinkling and each touching the horns of the altar, tradition prescribes a separate dipping of the finger into the bowl), and, going outside the tent of meeting and back again to the west side of the altar, pours the rest ( all the blood, Lev 4:7 ; Lev 4:18) at the base of the altar of Burnt-Offering.
The sprinkling of the blood before the veil, here ordered, is a later development of the ritual of Exo 29:12, where it was merely to be put upon the horns of the altar. Thus we have here an example of p s [41] . Cp. expressions in next v. and see App. on P.
[41] ( secondary enactments) combined with the earlier strata. See further, pp. 174 ff.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 4. Lay his hand upon the bullock’s head] See Clarke on Le 1:4.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He shall lay his hand upon the bullocks head, to testify both his acknowledgment of his sin, and his faith in Gods promise for the expiation of his sins through Christ, whom that sacrifice typified.
And kill the bullock, to wit, by one of the priests, whom he shall cause to do it; for this priest is distinguished from the anointed priest, Lev 4:5.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord,…. As the bullock of the burnt offering; [See comments on Le 1:3]:
and shall lay his hand on the bullock’s head; the Targum of Jonathan says his right hand; [See comments on Le 1:4]:
and kill the bullock before the Lord; at the door of the tabernacle, that is, in the court, as Gersom observes; according to the above Targum, the butcher killed it, and not the priest:
[See comments on Le 1:5] all this is typical of the imputation of sin to Christ, and of his death.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Verses 4-12:
Requirements for the Sin Offering differed according to the position of the offerer. If the offerer were the high priest, he must:
I. Offer a young bullock in the tabernacle courtyard;
2. Place his hands upon the head of the sacrifice;
3. Slay the sacrificial animal;
4. Take some of the animal’s blood into the holy place of the tabernacle, and there sprinkle some of it seven times toward the veil separating the Holy of Holies from the holy place, then smear some of the blood on the horns of the golden incense altar;
5. The rest of the blood must be poured out at the base of the brazen altar of burnt offering;
6. The internal fat must all be burnt upon the altar;
7. The remainder of the sacrifice must be carried outside the camp, and burned.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(4) Unto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation.Better, unto the entrance of the tent of meeting. (See Lev. 1:3.) The regulations about the bringing of the sin offering up to the sprinkling of the blood are the same as those about the other sacrifices.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Shall lay his hand and kill Since the priest is also the offerer these acts must be performed by him. For the significance of the laying on of the hand, see Lev 1:4. From later Jewish authorities we learn that there was added the following confession of sin, and prayer that the victim might be accepted as its expiation: “I have sinned, I have done iniquity, I have trespassed, and done thus and thus; and do return by repentance before thee, and with this I make atonement.” This confession, if it was not a part of the original ritual, was a pardonable addition; the proper we may say necessary expression of the penitent soul.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Reader! do not overlook the important ceremony, of laying on the hand. Did not this expressly say, that in the moment he did this, he himself as a sinner confessed that he merited the death, which the sacrifice was immediately after to sustain. Lev 16:21 ; Gal 3:13 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Lev 4:4 And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD; and shall lay his hand upon the bullock’s head, and kill the bullock before the LORD.
Ver. 4. Shall lay his hand. ] Confessing his sin, Lev 5:5 and professing his faith in Christ, the true sin offering. 2Co 5:21
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
door = entrance.
tabernacle of the congregation = tent of assembly.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
bring: Lev 1:3, Exo 29:10, Exo 29:11
lay his hand: Lev 1:4, Lev 16:21, Isa 53:6, Dan 9:26, 1Pe 3:18
Reciprocal: Lev 3:8 – he shall Lev 4:15 – lay Lev 4:24 – And he Lev 4:29 – General Lev 4:33 – General Lev 8:14 – laid Lev 9:8 – General Lev 14:13 – in the place Lev 16:7 – General Heb 5:7 – when
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lev 4:4. On the head To testify both his acknowledgment of his sin, and faith in Gods promise for the expiation of his sins through Christ, whom that sacrifice typified.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
4:4 And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD; and shall lay his hand upon the bullock’s head, and {c} kill the bullock before the LORD.
(c) By this confessing that he deserved the same punishment which the beast suffered.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
THE RITUAL OF THE SIN OFFERING
Lev 4:4-35; Lev 5:1-13; Lev 6:24-30
ACCORDING to the Authorised Version, {Lev 5:6-7} it might seem that the section, Lev 5:1-13, referred not to the sin offering, but to the guilt offering, like the latter part of the chapter; but, as suggested in the margin of the Revised Version, in these verses we may properly read, instead of “guilt offering,” “for his guilt.” That the latter rendering is to be preferred is clear when we observe that in Lev 5:6, Lev 5:7, Lev 5:9 this offering is called a sin offering; that, everywhere else, the victim for the guilt offering is a ram; and, finally, that the estimation of a money value for the victim, which is the most characteristic feature of the guilt offering, is absent from all the offerings described in these verses. We may safely take it therefore as certain that the marginal reading should be adopted in Lev 5:6, so that it will read, “he shall bring for his guilt unto the Lord”; and understand the section to contain a further development of the law of the sin offering. In the law of the preceding chapter we have the direction for the sin offering as graded with reference to the rank and station of the offerer; in this section we have the law for the sin offering for the common people, as graded with reference to the ability of the offerer.
The specifications {Lev 5:1-5} indicate several cases under which one of the common people was required to bring a sin offering as the condition of forgiveness. As an exhaustive list would be impossible, those named are taken as illustrations. The instances selected are significant as extending the class of offences for which atonement could be made by a sin offering, beyond the limits of sins of inadvertence as given in the previous chapter. For however some cases come under this head, we cannot so reckon sins of rashness (Lev 5:4), and still less, the failure of the witness placed under oath to tell the whole truth as he knows it. And herein it is graciously intimated that it is in the heart of God to multiply His pardons; and, on condition of the presentation of a sin offering, to forgive also those sins in palliation of which no such excuse as inadvertence or ignorance can be pleaded. It is a faint foreshadowing, in the law concerning the type, of that which should afterward be declared concerning the great Antitype, {1Jn 1:7} “The blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin.”
When we look now at the various prescriptions regarding the ritual of the offering which are given in this and the foregoing chapter, it is plain that the numerous variations from the ritual of the other sacrifices were intended to withdraw the thought of the sinner from all other aspects in which sacrifice might be regarded, and centre his mind upon the one thought of sacrifice as expiating sin, through the substitution of an innocent life for the guilty. In many particulars, indeed, the ritual agrees with that of the sacrifices before prescribed. The victim must be brought by the guilty person to be offered to God by the priest; he must, as in other cases of bloody offerings, then lay his hand on the head of the victim, and then (a particular not mentioned in the other cases) he must confess the sin which he has committed, and then and thus entrust the victim to the priest, that he may apply its blood for him in atonement before God. The priest then slays the victim, and now comes that part of the ceremonial which by its variations from the law of other offerings is emphasised as the most central and significant in this sacrifice.