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The Sin Offering
Leviticus 6:24–30 — The Sin Offering. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
24And the LORD said to Moses,
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
Yah·weh way·ḏab·bêr ’el- mō·šeh lê·mōr
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And spoke the LORD unto Moses, saying,
Where the English smooths the original
As is indicated by the special formula, this introduces a new law, or rather a more expanded law than the one contained in Leviticus 4:1-5 , giving more precise directions to the priests about the sin offering of the laity
The Law of the Sin-Offering, which is introduced with a new introductory formula on account of the interpolation of Leviticus 6:19-23 , gives more precise instructions, though chiefly with regard to the sin-offerings of the laityNames the literary seam: the renewed speech-formula marks a fresh paragraph, not a fresh subject.
Behold and wonder at Christ's love, in that he was content to be made a sin-offering for us, and so to procure our pardon for continual sins and failings.Henry's note covers the whole pericope 6:24–30; the typological reading is his, not the text's claim.
25“Tell Aaron and his sons that this is the law of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered, the sin offering shall be slaughtered before the LORD; it is most holy.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
dab·bêr ’el- ’a·hă·rōn wə·’el- bā·nāw lê·mōr zōṯ tō·w·raṯ ha·ḥaṭ·ṭāṯ bim·qō·wm ’ă·šer hā·‘ō·lāh tiš·šā·ḥêṭ ha·ḥaṭ·ṭāṯ tiš·šā·ḥêṭ lip̄·nê Yah·weh qō·ḏeš qā·ḏā·šîm hî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, This [is] the law of the sin offering: in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered shall the sin offering be slaughtered before the LORD; holy of holies [is] it.
Where the English smooths the original
That is, the north side of the altar.On "the place where the burnt offering is killed"; the locale is inferred from Leviticus 1:11.
The flesh of the victim, which represented the sinner for whom atonement was now made, was to be solemnly, and most exclusively, appropriated by those who were appointed to mediate between the sinner and the Lord. The far-reaching symbolism of the act met its perfect fulfillment in the One Mediator who took our nature upon Himself.
some have observed that Mount Calvary, where our Lord was crucified, lay pretty much to the north of JerusalemA geographical typology Gill reports as held by "some"; it is suggestive, not demonstrable, and the text makes no such claim.
26The priest who offers it shall eat it; it must be eaten in a holy place, in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hak·kō·hên ham·ḥaṭ·ṭê ’ō·ṯāh yō·ḵă·len·nāh tê·’ā·ḵêl qā·ḏōš bə·mā·qō·wm ba·ḥă·ṣar ’ō·hel mō·w·‘êḏ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
The priest who makes-sin-offering of it shall eat it; in a holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the Tent of Meeting.
Where the English smooths the original
God gave the sin offering as food for the priests to bear the iniquity of the congregation, and to make atonement for themEllicott reads the priestly meal through Leviticus 10:17 — the eating is a bearing of iniquity.
If on a particular occasion the priestly dues of a sacrifice fell to any one priest, he might invite his fellow priests to share in the meal, and the custom of eating these portions of the sacrifice together would be embodied in a law which asserted the right of all priests to partake of the sacrificial meal.A critical-source conjecture (the Cambridge editor's), offered as a possible compositional history — not the text's own statement.
the rest of the carcass belonged to the officiating priest. He and his family might feast upon it—only, however, within the precincts of the tabernacle; and none else were allowed to partake of it but the members of a priestly family—and not even they, if under any ceremonial defilement.JFB sets the practical bounds of the priestly meal — within the tabernacle, kin of the priestly house, and only if ceremonially clean.
an emblem of spiritual priests, believers in Christ, feeding in the church upon the provisions of his house, the goodness and fatness of it.Gill's allegorical application; a homiletic extension, not a grammatical claim.
27Anything that touches its flesh will become holy, and if any of the blood is spattered on a garment, you must wash it in a holy place.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
kōl ’ă·šer- yig·ga‘ biḇ·śā·rāh yiq·dāš wa·’ă·šer mid·dā·māh yiz·zeh ‘al- hab·be·ḡeḏ tə·ḵab·bês ’ă·šer yiz·zeh ‘ā·le·hā qā·ḏōš bə·mā·qō·wm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Everything that touches its flesh shall be holy; and that which is spattered of its blood upon the garment — you shall wash that which it was spattered upon in a holy place.
Where the English smooths the original
So peculiarly sacred was the sin offering, that when any of its blood chanced to spurt upon the garment of the officiating priest, or the one who brought the sacrifice, the spot which received the stain had to be washed in the room of the court provided for this purpose
shall become holy , as in Leviticus 6:18Corrects the rendering: "shall be holy" is better "shall become holy" — sanctity acquired by contact, the same idiom as 6:18.
This was done to preserve an esteem and value for the blood of the sacrifice, as typical of the precious blood of Christ.Gill's typological reading of the blood-washing; the connection to Christ's blood is his application.
28The clay pot in which the sin offering is boiled must be broken; if it is boiled in a bronze pot, the pot must be scoured and rinsed with water.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ḥe·reś ū·ḵə·lî- ’ă·šer tə·ḇuš·šal- bōw yiš·šā·ḇêr wə·’im- buš·šā·lāh nə·ḥō·šeṯ biḵ·lî ū·mō·raq wə·šuṭ·ṭap̄ bam·mā·yim
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And a vessel of clay in which it is boiled shall be broken; and if in a vessel of bronze it was boiled, then it shall be scoured and rinsed in water.
Where the English smooths the original
Unglazed pottery would absorb some of the juices of the meat: and a vessel made holy could not be put to any other purpose.
These, after the flesh of the sacrifice had been boiled in them, were to be broken, in order that what retained the smallest tincture of the holy things might not be profaned by being afterward employed in common use.
lest any of the most holy flesh should adhere to the vessel, and be desecrated by its being used in the preparation of common foodKeil notes the exact inversion: the same act (breaking earthenware) protects holiness here and contains impurity in Lev 11:33.
not because the vessels had been defiled, but the reverse—because the flesh of the sin offering having been boiled in them, those vessels were now too sacred for ordinary use.JFB states the positive ground precisely: the pot is destroyed not from defilement but from acquired holiness — too sacred, not too dirty.
29Any male among the priests may eat it; it is most holy.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
kāl- zā·ḵār bak·kō·hă·nîm yō·ḵal ’ō·ṯāh hî qō·ḏeš qā·ḏā·šîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Every male among the priests shall eat it; holy of holies [is] it.
Where the English smooths the original
It is to this practice that the apostle refers when he says, “We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle” ( Hebrews 13:10 ).Ellicott links the priests-only meal to Hebrews 13:10; the NT writer's application of this rite is itself debated (see threads).
Even those disqualified by reason of a blemish from offering sacrifice might eat of itCross-references Leviticus 21:22–23: descent in the priestly line, not ritual fitness, grants the right to eat.
by the males among the priests alone. But this only applied to the sin-offerings the laityKeil restricts the eaten sin offerings to those of the laity, setting up the exception of v. 30.
30But no sin offering may be eaten if its blood has been brought into the Tent of Meeting to make atonement in the Holy Place; it must be burned.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·ḵāl lō ḥaṭ·ṭāṯ ’ă·šer ṯê·’ā·ḵêl mid·dā·māh yū·ḇā ’el- ’ō·hel mō·w·‘êḏ lə·ḵap·pêr baq·qō·ḏeš bā·’êš tiś·śā·rêp̄
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And every sin offering of which [any] of its blood is brought into the Tent of Meeting to make atonement in the holy place shall not be eaten; in the fire it shall be burned.
Where the English smooths the original
but the flesh of the sin offerings, the blood of which was brought into the tabernacle, “to make atonement in the sanctuary,” was not to be eaten but to be burnt.
Such were the sacrifices offered for the high priest, or for the whole assembly, either severallyPoole identifies the burned class: offerings for the high priest and for the whole congregation, including the Day of Atonement (Lev 16:27).
The rule here laid down applies to: (1) the first two cases of the Sin-Offering in Leviticus 4:3-21 , where the place and manner of burning are specified in Leviticus 6:11-12 ; Leviticus 6:21 ; (2) the Sin-Offering on the Day of Atonement ( Leviticus 16:27-28 ).Cambridge enumerates the exact offerings the burned-not-eaten rule governs — the high-priest and congregation sin offerings of ch. 4, and the Day of Atonement of ch. 16.
What use the apostle makes of this, applying it to Christ, see Hebrews 13:11 .Gill points to Hebrews 13:11 as the NT application; the link is the writer of Hebrews', and its precise referent is debated (see flagged thread).
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit opens with the LORD speaking again — way·ḏab·bêr (H1696) — and the commentators agree this fresh speech-formula does not begin a new subject but a sharpened one. Keil & Delitzsch read it as "introduced with a new introductory formula on account of the interpolation of Leviticus 6:19-23," giving "more precise instructions… chiefly with regard to the sin-offerings of the laity." Ellicott concurs that it "introduces a new law, or rather a more expanded law than the one contained in Leviticus 4:1-5." The heading itself, zōṯ tō·w·raṯ ha·ḥaṭ·ṭāṯ — "this is the תורה of the sin offering" — is a genre-marker, one of the priestly manual's recurring section-titles. Note the word the English must choose between: חטאת (H2403) is at once the sin and the sin offering; the same noun names the wound and the dressing. And the place is fixed by parallel: the offering is tiš·šā·ḥêṭ ("slaughtered," H7819) where the burnt offering is slaughtered — the north of the altar, by Ellicott's reckoning from Leviticus 1:11.
The Hebrew of v. 26 contains one of the boldest verbs in the priestly vocabulary: the officiant is ham·ḥaṭ·ṭê (H2398), the Piel participle of "to sin" — which in this intensive stem reverses to mean to remove sin, to de-sin. The one who handles the sin offering is, grammatically, "the un-sinner." His eating is not appetite but office: Ellicott notes "God gave the sin offering as food for the priests to bear the iniquity of the congregation, and to make atonement for them," reading the meal through Leviticus 10:17. Barnes presses the symbolism — "the flesh of the victim, which represented the sinner for whom atonement was now made, was to be… most exclusively, appropriated by those who were appointed to mediate between the sinner and the Lord." Verse 29 restricts the table to kāl zā·ḵār, "every male" of the priestly line; the Cambridge Bible observes that even priests barred by blemish from serving could still eat — sonship, not fitness, admits one to the holy portion. Gill's churchly application ("an emblem of spiritual priests, believers in Christ, feeding in the church") is homiletic extension, flagged as such.
Here the offering's qō·ḏeš qā·ḏā·šîm status turns active. Whatever touches the flesh yiq·dāš (H6942) — "shall become holy," as the Cambridge Bible corrects the older "shall be holy": sanctity is transmissive, the mirror of the impurity that elsewhere spreads by touch. Blood that yiz·zeh (H5137, "spurts") onto a robe must be laundered inside the sanctuary; Ellicott explains the spot "had to be washed in the room of the court provided for this purpose," so the holy blood is never carried into common life. The vessels follow the same logic by their materials. The חרש (H2789, porous earthenware) must be yiš·šā·ḇêr ("shattered," H7665) — Barnes: "a vessel made holy could not be put to any other purpose"; Benson: broken "lest… the smallest tincture of the holy things… be profaned by being afterward employed in common use." The bronze, being non-absorbent, is only mō·raq ("scoured," the rare H4838) and flushed. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown press the positive ground: the vessels are treated so "not because the vessels had been defiled, but the reverse… those vessels were now too sacred for ordinary use" — too holy, not too dirty. Keil catches the precise inversion that makes Leviticus coherent: breaking earthenware here protects holiness, while in Leviticus 11:33 it contains impurity — the same act guarding two opposite contaminations. The principle outlives the tabernacle: Ezekiel's visionary temple still appoints a separate place "where the priests shall boil… the sin offering," lest its holiness be carried out and "transmit holiness to the people" (Ezekiel 46:20).
The unit closes on its great exception. When the blood yū·ḇā (H935, a Hophal — "is caused to be brought in") into the Tent lə·ḵap·pêr ("to make atonement," H3722) in the holy place, the flesh tiś·śā·rêp̄ ("shall be burned," H8313) — and, by Leviticus 4:12 and 16:27, burned outside the camp. Poole names the class: offerings "for the high priest, or for the whole assembly," including the Day of Atonement. Ellicott states the rule plainly: such flesh "was not to be eaten but to be burnt." It is precisely this disposal that Gill flags toward the New Testament — "What use the apostle makes of this, applying it to Christ, see Hebrews 13:11" — and that Ellicott earlier connected at v. 29 to the altar "whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle" (Hebrews 13:10). The Christ-reading is the writer of Hebrews' own, and its precise mechanics are debated; it is carried below as a flagged, cross-Testament thread.
Read on its own terms, the unit is a single argument about holiness as a force, not a status. The sin offering is graded qō·ḏeš qā·ḏā·šîm — "holy of holies" — and that grade behaves: it passes by touch to flesh, to garment, to clay and bronze; it can be neither casually carried out of the sanctuary nor casually washed away. The same earthen pot that must be shattered when it drinks holiness (6:28) must be shattered when it drinks uncleanness (11:33) — and the symmetry is the point: in Israel's world, both the holy and the unclean are communicable, real, and dangerous to mishandle. Notice further the verb chosen for the priest: ham·ḥaṭ·ṭê, the intensive of "to sin," wrenched to mean "to un-sin." The man who removes sin does so by drawing the sin-bearing flesh into himself — he eats it (6:26), within the holy court, and in eating bears the people's iniquity. This is the text's own logic, not a later overlay: the offering is too holy to discard, the priest too set-apart to share it widely, the one exception (6:30) reserved for the sins so grave their blood must enter the sanctuary itself, after which the flesh is given wholly to fire outside the camp. The chapter teaches, before any Christology, that sin is not erased by sentiment but transferred, borne, and consumed — and that what bears it becomes itself untouchable. This reading is offered to be tested against the text, not in place of it.
The pot that drinks holiness and the pot that drinks defilement meet the same hammer — for in Israel both the holy and the unclean are real, and neither can be quietly carried back into ordinary life.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The rare verb מרק (H4838, mâraq, "to scour / polish / burnish") occurs in only four verses in the whole Hebrew Bible, and one of them describes the bronze temple vessels Huram-abi made for Solomon — the pots, shovels, and meat forks, made "of polished bronze" (the noun נחשת with the participle of mâraq). Three shared lexemes bind the two texts — the rare H4838 mâraq (only 4 vv), plus H5178 nᵉchôsheth (bronze) and H3627 kᵉlîy (vessel) — a distinctive craft-vocabulary for working sacred bronze that the law for the sanctuary and the account of the temple it anticipates hold in common. The link rests on the rarity of mâraq, not on a quotation: Leviticus polishes the bronze to cleanse it of holy residue, Chronicles polishes it to a finish in the making; the same scarce word, different ends.
Leviticus 6:28 · 2 Chronicles 4:16
basis: Verifier: shared lexemes H4838 mâraq (rare — only 4 vv), H5178 nᵉchôsheth, H3627 kᵉlîy; the rarity of mâraq makes the verbal link confirmed rather than coincidental. Not a citation — the same scarce craft-verb used independently (cleansing vs. finishing sacred bronze).
Ezekiel's visionary temple preserves the very logic of this unit: the prophet is shown "the place where the priests shall boil the guilt offering and the sin offering" — a designated precinct "so that they do not bring them into the outer court and transmit holiness to the people" (Ezekiel 46:20). The boiling verb is shared (H1310 bâshal, in only 24 verses), and with it the whole concern of vv. 26–28: the cooked sin offering is holy, must be handled within the sanctuary, and must not pass its sanctity into common life. Centuries after Moses, Ezekiel still legislates the same containment of contagious holiness — a structural/thematic echo, not a quotation.
Leviticus 6:28 · Ezekiel 46:20
basis: Verifier: shared lexeme H1310 bâshal (in 24 vv) — same procedure (the priests boil the sin offering in a holy precinct so its holiness is not carried out); shared rite and motif, not a citation.
An earthen vessel that has boiled the most-holy sin offering must be shattered (6:28); an earthen vessel into which an unclean creature has fallen must likewise be shattered (Leviticus 11:33). The shared lexemes — H2789 cheres (potsherd), H7665 shâbar (shatter), H3627 kᵉlîy (vessel) — bind the two rulings into one principle: porous clay cannot be neutralized, so whatever it absorbs, holy or defiling, dooms it. Keil & Delitzsch note the inversion directly. This is a structural/thematic link — a shared procedure and motif, not a quotation.
Leviticus 6:28 · Leviticus 11:33
basis: Verifier: shared lexemes H2789 cheres, H7665 shâbar, H3627 kᵉlîy — same procedure (break the earthen vessel) applied to opposite contaminations; pattern, not quotation.
Verse 30's exception — the sin offering whose blood is brought inside to make atonement must be burned, not eaten — is the rule the Day of Atonement enacts: the bull and goat "whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place" are carried outside the camp and burned (Leviticus 16:27). The Verifier finds an unusually dense overlap: H3722 kâphar (atone), H8313 sâraph (burn), H2403 chaṭṭâʼâh (sin offering), H1818 dâm (blood), plus ʼêsh (fire) and qôdesh (holy). The cluster is thematic/structural — a shared procedure spanning chapters — and 6:30 is its general statement, Lev 16:27 its supreme instance.
Leviticus 6:30 · Leviticus 16:27
basis: Verifier: shared lexemes H3722 kâphar, H8313 sâraph, H2403 chaṭṭâʼâh, H1818 dâm, H784 ʼêsh, H6944 qôdesh — a shared rite (blood inside → flesh burned), not a verbal citation.
The location-rule of 6:25 — the sin offering is slaughtered where the burnt offering is, before the LORD — recurs when Aaron "shall kill the goat of the sin offering" on the great Day (Leviticus 16:15). Shared H7819 shâchaṭ (slaughter) and H2403 chaṭṭâʼâh (sin offering) tie the laity's ordinary rite to the year's central one (H6440 pânîym, "before/face," is too common to bear weight). A thematic link: the same sacrificial grammar scaled from the individual to the nation.
Leviticus 6:25 · Leviticus 16:15
basis: Verifier: shared lexemes H7819 shâchaṭ, H2403 chaṭṭâʼâh (H6440 pânîym too frequent to count) — shared sacrificial procedure, not a quotation.
The writer of Hebrews builds his exhortation on exactly 6:30's rule: "the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the gate" (Hebrews 13:11–13). Gill points readers here explicitly. But this is a Greek↔Hebrew link: it cannot rest on shared Strong's numbers (there are none), and the Verifier returns no shared original-language lexeme. The connection is the NT author's own typological argument, recorded and reasoned — not a verbal quotation — and because the precise scope of "those animals" and the identification with the sanctuary-blood class has been disputed, it is flagged for source-verification rather than asserted.
Leviticus 6:30 · Hebrews 13:11
basis: Verifier: no shared original-language lexeme (cross-Testament Greek↔Hebrew); the link is the writer of Hebrews' typological application, contested in scope — argued, not asserted.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
Matthew Henry, commenting across this whole pericope, draws the line the chapter invites: "Behold and wonder at Christ's love, in that he was content to be made a sin-offering for us… He that knew no sin was made sin (that is, a sin-offering) for us, 2Co 5:21." The Hebrew supports the figure structurally: the priest is ham·ḥaṭ·ṭê (6:26), grammatically "the de-sinner," who removes sin by taking the sin-bearing flesh into himself. The reading is ancient and widely held; the link to 2 Corinthians 5:21 is, however, cross-Testament and lexically unverifiable (the Verifier finds no shared lemma), so the connection rests on theological argument — Christ as both priest and sin offering — not on verbal citation.
Leviticus 6:26 · 2 Corinthians 5:21
Of all the chapter's rules, 6:30 reaches furthest into the New Testament. The sin offering whose blood enters the sanctuary to make atonement (lə·ḵap·pêr) is given wholly to the fire (tiś·śā·rêp̄) outside the camp (Lev 4:12; 16:27). Hebrews 13:11–13 makes this the figure of the cross: "Jesus also suffered outside the gate to sanctify the people through His own blood." Gill and Ellicott both point the reader to Hebrews (13:11 and 13:10 respectively). The typology is ancient and widely held — but, as the flagged thread records, it is a cross-Testament reading carried by the NT author's argument, not by any shared Hebrew/Greek lexeme, and its scope has been debated; we mark it as such rather than overclaim.
Leviticus 6:30 · Hebrews 13:11 · Hebrews 13:12
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
This unit is Hebrew-only; every cross-reference within the Old Testament is verified by shared Strong's lexemes from the Verifier, and the bases are recorded on each badge. Two links reach into the New Testament (Hebrews 13:11–13; 2 Corinthians 5:21): both are cross-Testament, so they cannot use shared Strong's numbers and are never tiered "verbal." The Hebrews link in particular is the writer of Hebrews' own typological argument and its precise scope is debated, so it is carried as flagged — verify source. One thread is strong enough to call verbal: the rare verb מרק (H4838, only four occurrences) shared with 2 Chronicles 4:16 — though even there the wording is not a citation but the same scarce craft-verb put to opposite ends (cleansing sacred bronze here, finishing it in the temple account), so the body says so. The remaining OT threads are structural/thematic — shared procedures and motifs, not quotations — including Ezekiel 46:20, whose visionary temple still legislates the same containment of the boiled sin offering's holiness (shared H1310 bâshal). Several voices carry typological or homiletic readings (Gill on Calvary's compass-bearing; Gill on the church as priestly table; Henry and Gill on the blood of Christ); these are the commentators' applications, marked in their editorial notes, and are not advanced as the text's own claim. Where the English smooths a Hebrew superlative ("most holy" for the doubled qō·ḏeš qā·ḏā·šîm), a causative-passive ("has been brought" for the Hophal yū·ḇā), or the daring Piel of "to sin" rendered "who offers," the divergence notes name the original. Parses follow the Berean/Strong's data supplied and are not contradicted here.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)