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Levítico 5

VBL · Chapter 5/27

1“Si tú pecas por no suministrar las pruebas necesarias en un caso legal, ya sea que tú mismo hayas visto o escuchado algo al respecto, eres responsable de tu culpabilidad.

2Si tocas algo sucio como el cadáver de un animal salvaje impuro o animales de granja o bichos, incluso si no eres consciente de ello, serás impuro y culpable.

3Si tocas algo sucio de alguien que es sucio, incluso si no eres consciente de ello, serás culpable.

4Si juras imprudentemente hacer algo, (ya sea bueno o malo, y de cualquier manera que la gente pueda jurar impulsivamente), incluso si no eres consciente de que está mal, cuando finalmente te das cuenta, serás culpable.

5“Si te vuelves culpable de una de estas formas, debes confesar tu pecado,

6y debes llevar tu ofrenda de culpa de un cordero o cabra hembra al Señor como una ofrenda por tu pecado. El sacerdote expiará tu pecado.

7Si no te alcanza para comprar un cordero, puedes ofrecer al Señor como compensación por tu pecado dos tórtolas o dos palomas jóvenes, una como ofrenda por el pecado y otra como holocausto.

8Debes llevarlos al sacerdote, quien presentará el primero como la ofrenda por el pecado. Él debe arrancarle la cabeza del cuello sin quitarla completamente.

9Luego debe rociar parte de la sangre de la ofrenda por el pecado en el lado del altar mientras el resto de la sangre es derramada en la base del altar. Es una ofrenda por el pecado.

10El sacerdote debe entonces preparar la segunda tórtola como holocausto según las normas. De esta manera el sacerdote te justificará por tus pecados, y serás perdonado.

11“Si no te alcanza para comprar dos tórtolas o dos pichones, puedes traer un décimo de efa de la mejor harina como ofrenda por el pecado. No le pongas aceite de oliva o incienso, porque es una ofrenda por el pecado.

12Llévala al sacerdote, que tomará un puñado como ‘recordatorio’ y lo quemará en el altar sobre las ofrendas quemadas al Señor. Es una ofrenda por el pecado.

13Así es como el sacerdote expiará cualquiera de estos pecados que hayas cometido, y serás perdonado. El resto de la ofrenda pertenecerá al sacerdote, al igual que la ofrenda de grano”.

14El Señor le dijo a Moisés:

15“Si alguno de ustedes descuida involuntariamente todo lo que el Señor ha declarado que le pertenece y es santo, debes llevar tu ofrenda de culpabilidad al Señor: un carnero sin defectos de tu rebaño o sólo uno de valor equivalente en siclos de plata (según el estándar del siclo del santuario). Es una ofrenda por la culpa.

16En cuanto a cualquier requisito sagrado que no hayas aportado, debes pagar una compensación añadiéndole un quinto de su valor y luego dárselo al sacerdote, que lo arreglará con el carnero como ofrenda por la culpa, y serás perdonado.

17Si pecas y quebrantas alguno de los mandamientos del Señor, aunque no seas consciente de ello, sigues siendo culpable y asumes la responsabilidad de tu culpa.

18Debes llevar al sacerdote un carnero sin defectos y de valor apropiado como ofrenda de culpabilidad. Entonces expiará por ti el mal que hiciste en la ignorancia, y serás perdonado.

19Es una ofrenda de culpa porque fuiste culpable en lo que concierne al Señor”.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The law covers specific cases of sin: witnessing something and staying silent, touching uncleanness unknowingly, or making a rash oath. For the poor, the animal could be replaced with birds or even flour.

Explanation

This chapter shows mercy within justice: God does not demand from the poor the same costly sacrifice required of the wealthy — what matters is sincere repentance, not the value of the sacrifice. It also broadens the concept of sin to include omission (staying silent while knowing something is wrong) and hasty words, not just clear-cut acts. This teaches that integrity involves actions as well as silences and words. Today, this reminds us that God looks at a heart willing to make things right, not the size of the "offering" we can bring.

Fun facts

  • The permission to offer "the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour" without oil or frankincense for those who could not even afford birds is the smallest sacrifice required anywhere in the Law — about 2 liters of flour.
  • The Hebrew term for "sin through error" (shegagah) differs from the one used for deliberate sin, a distinction showing that the Law already recognized degrees of moral responsibility.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Levítico 5:1Witnessing something, like hearing a curse, and not reporting it was already considered sin under this law — staying silent meant carrying the responsibility for what the person concealed, not only for acts committed directly.
  2. Levítico 5:2Touching an unclean animal’s carcass without meaning to already left the person “unclean, and guilty,” even if they did not know it at the time. Ritual impurity here did not depend on intent, which is why the verse allows for the person to find out later and still need to deal with it.
  3. Levítico 5:3Touching another person’s uncleanness — not only an animal’s, as in the previous verse — also left someone unclean without realizing it at the time, and the guilt only surfaced once the person found out later.
  4. Levítico 5:4Making a rash promise or oath, without thinking it through, also made the list of things that created guilt if discovered later — the principle applies both to contact with impurity and to careless words.
  5. Levítico 5:5Before bringing any sin offering, the person had to confess out loud what they had done wrong — acknowledging the mistake always came before the ritual that resolved it.
  6. Levítico 5:6The standard offering for these cases was a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat — the same price range seen in the previous chapter for an ordinary person, applied here to this particular kind of guilt.
  7. Levítico 5:7Whoever did not have the money to buy a sheep or a goat could bring two birds instead. The sin-offering system had a descending price scale, designed for those with fewer resources.
  8. Levítico 5:8When a person brought two birds, the first one always became the sin offering: the priest wrung its neck without separating the head from the body, a technical detail that distinguished this bird from the second.
  9. Levítico 5:9This bird’s blood was sprinkled on the wall of the altar, and the rest was drained out at the base — the same treatment given to blood in the larger sacrifices, scaled down for the size of the bird.
  10. Levítico 5:10The second bird became an ordinary burnt offering, following the procedure already described in chapter 1 — the two birds together fulfilled the role a larger animal would fulfill alone.
  11. Levítico 5:11If a person could not even afford two birds, the offering became just a handful of flour, without the oil or frankincense that normally perfumed the offering. It was the cheapest version of all, making sure no one was kept from making things right for lack of money.
  12. Levítico 5:12Just as with the ordinary meat offering, the priest took out a handful of the flour as a memorial and burned it on the altar — the same principle of representing the whole offering with a symbolic portion.
  13. Levítico 5:13With that handful burned, the mistake was resolved and the person forgiven; the rest of the flour was left for the priest to eat, the same way as with any meat offering.
  14. Levítico 5:14This opening formula marks the start of a new topic within the chapter: from here on the text deals with the “trespass offering,” tied to concrete damages, different from the ordinary sin offering seen so far.
  15. Levítico 5:15The “trespass offering” is different from the ordinary sin offering: it involved restoring something plus a fine of an extra fifth, used in cases with concrete harm to repair, not just a religious failure. The value was measured in “shekels of the sanctuary,” a standardized unit of silver weight — the temple’s official reference currency.
  16. Levítico 5:16Besides bringing the ram, whoever damaged something sacred had to pay back the equivalent value and add another 20 percent as a fine — atonement here included financial repayment, not just the sacrifice.
  17. Levítico 5:17The text reinforces that even without knowing they were doing wrong, the person was still considered guilty — ignorance did not remove responsibility, it only changed how the mistake was resolved.
  18. Levítico 5:18Unlike the case of sacred things in verse 16, there is no mention of a 20 percent fine here: just the ram, valued by the priest, was already enough to resolve a mistake made out of sheer ignorance.
  19. Levítico 5:19This closing line ends the section on the trespass offering, reinforcing that even an unintentional mistake counted, in the eyes of the law, as a real offense that needed to be resolved.

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