Can you be guilty of something you never knew you did? Leviticus 5 answers yes, twice over, and then opens a way back that bends down to whatever the guilty man can afford. This Leviticus 5 summary and study guide follows both halves of the chapter.
Table of Contents
- Setting the Stage
- Comprehensive Leviticus 5 Summary
- Leviticus 5 Outline
- The Offering Scaled to What a Man Could Afford
- The Two Offerings of Leviticus 5
- Observations from Leviticus 5
- Difficult Verses Explained
- Common Misunderstandings
- Christ Connection
- When, Where, and Why
- Key Verses
- Key Lessons from Leviticus 5
- Bible Study Questions
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Leviticus 5, The Full Text (KJV)
Setting the Stage
Exodus closes with a tent. Israel had just built it, a portable sanctuary, because God had promised to live in the middle of their camp. When the tabernacle was finished His glory filled it so completely that Moses could not go inside.
God then called to Moses out of that tent and gave the laws we read as Leviticus. The first three chapters describe gifts a worshipper chose to bring. Leviticus 4 turned to what a person owes after breaking God’s law, setting the sin offering out by rank.
Chapter 5 carries that same law down a second scale, this time by what a man could pay. For the wider setting, see our Book of Leviticus Summary by Chapter.
Comprehensive Leviticus 5 Summary
God names four occasions on which an Israelite becomes guilty. A man hears a public call to testify about something he saw or knows, and says nothing. A man touches the carcase of an unclean animal without realising it.
A man touches human uncleanness without realising it. A man blurts out an oath and forgets what he swore. The first man knew all along. The other three find out later, and the offering starts from there.
The remedy is the same for all four. He must confess the exact wrong he did, then bring a female lamb or young goat, and the priest makes atonement for him.
Then God lowers the price. If the man cannot afford a flock animal, two turtledoves or two young pigeons will do, one offered for sin and the second as a burnt offering.
If he cannot afford birds either, a tenth of an ephah of plain flour is accepted, with no olive oil poured on it and no frankincense sprinkled over it, because it is a sin offering. The priest burns a handful of it on the altar and keeps the rest. At the bird offering and again at the flour offering God says the same thing: it shall be forgiven him.
At verse 14 God speaks again and introduces a second offering. A man who has trespassed against the holy things of the LORD, the tithes and firstfruits and vowed gifts that belonged to God, brings a ram without blemish, valued in silver by the sanctuary standard.
He also pays back whatever was taken from that holy thing, and twenty percent beyond it. And a man who broke one of God’s commands without ever knowing it brings the same ram. He is guilty, and he is forgiven.
One Word Summary
- Guilt: the chapter’s own repeated word, and the name of its second offering.
- Awareness: the hinge in most of the cases, “when he knoweth of it.”
- Reach: the price bends from a lamb down to flour.
In One Sentence
God tells Moses that a silent witness, a man defiled without knowing, and a man who swore rashly must each confess the exact sin and bring an offering priced to what he can afford, and He then requires a ram plus repayment from anyone who wrongs what belongs to Him.
Theme of Leviticus 5
Leviticus 5 is about guilt and the way back from it. Three ideas run alongside that. Guilt is not confined to what a man notices, so it covers the witness who knew and stayed silent as surely as the man who touched something unclean and found out later.
Awareness brings obligation, which is why the offering starts the day the truth comes home. And where the wrong did measurable damage, the way back runs through repayment as well as through blood.
Leviticus 5 Outline
- Leviticus 5:1: A man under a public oath keeps silent about what he saw or knew, and bears his iniquity.
- Leviticus 5:2-3: A man touches an unclean carcase, or human uncleanness, without realising it, and is guilty once he learns of it.
- Leviticus 5:4: A man swears a rash oath to do evil or good, forgets it, and is guilty once he remembers.
- Leviticus 5:5-6: He must confess the exact sin and bring a female lamb or kid of the goats, and the priest makes atonement for him.
- Leviticus 5:7-10: A man who cannot afford a lamb brings two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and it shall be forgiven him.
- Leviticus 5:11-13: A man who cannot afford birds brings a tenth of an ephah of fine flour without oil or frankincense, the priest burns a handful, and it shall be forgiven him.
- Leviticus 5:14-16: God speaks again and requires a ram, restitution for the harm, and a fifth part added, from anyone who trespasses in the holy things of the LORD.
- Leviticus 5:17-19: A man who broke a command without knowing it is still guilty, brings the same ram, and it shall be forgiven him.
The Offering Scaled to What a Man Could Afford
Leviticus 5:6 to 13 sets out three tiers, and the tier a man used was decided by his purse and nothing else.
| Tier | What he brought | What that was | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| If he could afford it (5:6) | A female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats | A whole animal, the standard offering of Leviticus 4:28 and 4:32 | “the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin” |
| If he could not afford a lamb (5:7-10) | Two turtledoves or two young pigeons | The offering the law elsewhere names for those who cannot afford a lamb (Leviticus 12:8) | “it shall be forgiven him” |
| If he could not afford birds (5:11-13) | A tenth of an ephah of fine flour, no oil, no frankincense | Roughly two litres of plain flour, though estimates of the ephah vary | “it shall be forgiven him” |
The order of the two birds is fixed: the priest offers the sin offering first, wringing off its head without severing it, before the second bird goes up as a burnt offering (Leviticus 5:8-10). Guilt is dealt with before devotion is offered.
The concession runs downward only, and G. Campbell Morgan read that as a warning to the man who did not need it: an Israelite who could afford the lamb and brought birds instead would be showing that he thought little of his own sin and little of God’s kindness.
The Two Offerings of Leviticus 5
Verse 14 opens with a fresh word from God, and a second offering starts there. That seam is where the difference between the sin offering and the guilt offering actually lies.
| The offering of 5:1-13 | The offering of 5:14-19 | |
|---|---|---|
| What the wrong touched | The man’s own standing before God, through silence, defilement, or a rash oath | The holy things of the LORD, the tithes, firstfruits and vowed gifts set apart for Him |
| The animal | A female lamb or kid, or two birds, or flour | A ram without blemish, with no cheaper alternative |
| Valued in silver? | No | Yes, “by shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary” (5:15) |
| Repayment required? | No | Yes, the harm made good with a fifth part added (5:16) |
| Where the fuller law sits | Leviticus 4 gives the sin offering by rank | The unit runs on into Leviticus 6:1-7, and the ritual is given in Leviticus 7:1-7 |
Verse 15 requires the ram to be valued “by shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary,” and then never names a figure. Since verse 16 ties the payment to the harm actually done, the amount would have varied with the case, and the priest was the one who assessed it.
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Observations from Leviticus 5
The Same Promise Lands on the Cheapest Offering
“And it shall be forgiven him” closes the bird offering in verse 10 and the flour offering in verse 13, then closes the restitution case in verse 16 and the case of the man who never knew in verse 18. The wording never softens as the price drops. A poor Israelite walking away from the altar with an empty flour bowl had heard exactly what a wealthy neighbour heard walking away from a lamb.
The Chapter Opens and Closes on the Same Verdict
“Shall bear his iniquity” falls on the man in verse 1 and again on the man in verse 17. He carries the weight of what he has done. Those two men are opposites: the first knew and said nothing, the last never knew at all.
Everything in between sits inside those two verdicts. God weighs guilt by the command that was broken, not by how much of it the man had noticed.
God Keeps Calling the Cheap Offering a Sin Offering
The words “it is a sin offering” are attached to the birds in verse 9 and to the flour in verses 11 and 12, and verse 11 adds why the flour carries no oil and no frankincense: “for it is a sin offering.” Oil and frankincense belonged to the grain offering of Leviticus 2, which was a glad gift. Stripping them out kept the poor man’s flour in its own category. The cheapness never changed what the offering was.
Chapter 4 Descends by Rank, Chapter 5 by What a Man Could Pay
Leviticus 4 walked down from the anointed priest to the whole congregation to a ruler to any ordinary Israelite. Leviticus 5:6 to 13 walks down a second staircase, from a flock animal to birds to flour. Between the two chapters God has covered the man too important to be excused and the man too poor to pay, and neither is left standing outside the provision.
Difficult Verses Explained
Is Staying Silent Really a Sin?
Yes, and unlike the three cases that follow it, this one is chosen rather than accidental. Leviticus 5:1 describes a man who is present to “hear the voice of swearing,” meaning a solemn public charge has gone out calling anyone with knowledge of a matter to come forward.
He has seen or heard something, and he keeps it to himself. Scripture shows that kind of oath in use: Solomon speaks of a man made to swear at the altar (1 Kings 8:31), a priest puts a woman under an oath in Numbers 5:21, and the high priest says to Jesus, “I adjure thee by the living God” (Matthew 26:63).
Commentators understand the charge in Leviticus 5:1 the same way, spoken over a district or a whole assembly rather than administered to witnesses one by one. Proverbs 29:24 weighs that silence the same way: the man who “heareth cursing, and bewrayeth it not,” who hears the charge laid and will not disclose what he knows, is set alongside the thief’s own partner. He hears the charge, says nothing, and shares the guilt.
Verses 2, 3 and 4 each say the matter was hidden from the man. Verse 1 says no such thing. Ellicott’s commentary draws the line plainly: chapter 4 dealt with sins committed by accident, and this man’s silence was chosen and blameworthy.
Did God Allow a Man to Swear to Do Evil?
No. “To do evil, or to do good” (Leviticus 5:4) is a way of saying anything at all, the way we might say “for better or worse.” God is describing the whole range of rash oaths a person might swear, not licensing half of them.
The verse does leave a man in a real bind. If he swore in the heat of a moment to do something that turns out to be wrong, keeping the oath is sin and breaking it is sin, and either way he needs the offering. Jesus later cut the problem off at its root by telling His followers to swear not at all and let their yes be yes (Matthew 5:33-37).
How Can Flour Atone When There Is No Blood?
Leviticus 5:11-13 is the one place in the sacrificial law where an offering with no blood in it brings forgiveness, and the law fences it in tightly. It is granted only to a man who cannot afford two birds, and only for the four cases named at the top of this chapter. Hebrews 9:22 still stands as the rule: without shedding of blood there is no remission.
God had made a way through every other barrier, and He would not leave poverty standing as the last one. Many Bible teachers read the concession as pointing forward to a salvation offered without money and without price (Isaiah 55:1). The flour never had power of its own; it worked because God had appointed it, and because a priest carried it to the altar on the man’s behalf.
How Can I Be Guilty of Something I Never Knew About?
Leviticus 5:17 says a man who breaks God’s commandment “though he wist it not” is guilty and must bring the ram. He did not know at the time. Guilt in this chapter follows the broken command itself, and it stands whether the conscience ever registered anything.
Scripture does not flatten every sin into one weight. Defiant sin sits in its own category with no offering attached (Numbers 15:30-31), and Jesus weighed the servant who knew his master’s will against the servant who acted in ignorance (Luke 12:47-48). Verse 18 then arrives with a remedy rather than a punishment: the priest makes atonement, and it shall be forgiven him. David prayed his way into the same place when he asked, “cleanse thou me from secret faults” (Psalm 19:12), asking God to deal with what he could not see in himself.
Common Misunderstandings
- That Leviticus 5 is only about unintentional sin. Verses 2, 3, 4, 15 and 17 all describe a wrong the man did not know about at the time. Verse 1 describes no such thing: he heard the charge, he knew the matter, and he chose to stay silent.
- That a cheaper offering bought a smaller pardon. Nothing in the chapter grades forgiveness by cost. God gives the flour in verse 13 the identical promise He gives the birds in verse 10, and He attaches no extra condition to the poor man’s version.
- That restitution became optional once the sacrifice was made. Leviticus 5:16 ties them together in one sentence, and Leviticus 6:5-6 puts the repayment first and the ram after it.
- That the whole chapter is the guilt offering. Several popular summaries title Leviticus 5 that way, which quietly loses the first thirteen verses. God does not begin speaking about the trespass in the holy things until verse 14.
Christ Connection
The clearest line from this chapter to Christ runs through one Hebrew word. The offering of Leviticus 5:15 to 19 is the asham, usually translated trespass offering or guilt offering, and it is the word Isaiah uses of the suffering Servant: “when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed” (Isaiah 53:10).
The King James renders it “an offering for sin,” which reads like the sin offering of chapter 4 and hides the link. Isaiah picks the offering that repays, not the one that only covers. Philip read that chapter of Isaiah with the Ethiopian and “preached unto him Jesus” (Acts 8:35), so the New Testament settles who the Servant is even where our English blurs which offering He answers to.
The trespass offering did something the sin offering did not: it made the harm good. Christ covers the guilt, and He also restores what sin took from God.
- The witness who spoke. Leviticus 5:1 convicts a man who hears the adjuration and stays silent. When the high priest said “I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God,” Jesus, silent until that moment, answered him (Matthew 26:63-64). Revelation 1:5 calls Him the faithful witness.
- The offering of the poor. The two birds of Leviticus 5:7 are what Joseph and Mary carried into the temple for the infant Jesus (Luke 2:24). The Lamb of God was presented by a family who could not buy a lamb.
- Restoring what He did not take. Leviticus 5:16 sent the offender back to mend what he had spoiled, and to overpay for it. Psalm 69:4 has the righteous sufferer say, “then I restored that which I took not away.” The New Testament applies that psalm to Christ repeatedly (John 2:17; John 15:25; Romans 15:3), so many Bible teachers hear His voice in that line, paying back a debt He never ran up.
- The offering that ends the offerings. Leviticus 5 promises forgiveness four times and still requires the next ram from the next man. Hebrews 10:17-18 says that where sins are remembered no more, “there is no more offering for sin.”
Confession has not been retired either. Leviticus 5:5 required the sin named before the animal was brought, and 1 John 1:9 keeps that same order, resting it now on a finished sacrifice rather than a repeated one.
When, Where, and Why
- When: About a year after the exodus from Egypt, in the weeks after the tabernacle was raised (Exodus 40:17). Estimates of the exact year differ depending on which dating of the exodus is followed.
- Where: The wilderness of Sinai, at the door of the tent of meeting in the middle of the Israelite camp. Every offering in this chapter had to be carried there and handed to a priest. God was near enough to be reached, and holy enough that a man came on His terms rather than his own.
- Why: God had come to live in the middle of a people who would keep contracting guilt, some of it without noticing. Moses records these laws so Israel would know what to do the day they found out, and so no Israelite could conclude that a sin too small to remember or a purse too thin to pay had shut the door.
Key Verses
“And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing.”
Leviticus 5:5
Before any animal is brought, the guilty man has to say out loud what he did wrong. Notice how particular it is: he confesses that he sinned in that thing, the actual matter, not a general admission that he is a sinner like everybody else.
“And if he be not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring for his trespass, which he hath committed, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, unto the LORD.”
Leviticus 5:7
If a man cannot afford a lamb, he brings two birds instead. This is the verse where the law bends, and it bends twice more before the chapter is done.
“And the priest shall make an atonement for him as touching his sin that he hath sinned in one of these, and it shall be forgiven him.”
Leviticus 5:13
The priest makes atonement for whichever of those sins the man committed, and God forgives him. “In one of these” reaches back over the whole opening list, so the flour in a poor man’s hands answered for a broken oath and a withheld testimony just as the lamb did.
“And he shall make amends for the harm that he hath done in the holy thing, and shall add the fifth part thereto, and give it unto the priest.”
Leviticus 5:16
The man makes good what he damaged, adds another twenty percent, and hands it to the priest. The payment goes to the priest, and the priests lived on those holy portions (Numbers 18:8-19), so the man is repaying the people his carelessness had left short.
Key Lessons from Leviticus 5
- Guilt is real before a person feels it, because the man in verse 2 was already unclean while the matter was still hidden from him.
- The moment you find out is the moment God asks you to act, which is what “when he knoweth of it” means in verses 3 and 4.
- Confession in this chapter is particular, naming the actual wrong rather than admitting sin in general (Leviticus 5:5).
- Silence can be sin, since the man in verse 1 told no lie and still bore his iniquity.
- Repentance repairs what it can, because the fifth part added in verse 16 put back more than the wrong had taken.
To go deeper into what this chapter asks of a believer today, read our full study: Lessons from Leviticus 5.
Bible Study Questions
- Verses 1 to 4 name four situations that make a man guilty. What do three of them share, and how is the man in verse 1 different from the other three?
- Why does God require confession in verse 5 before the offering in verse 6, and what would be lost if the order were reversed?
- The offering drops from a lamb to birds to flour, and the promise of forgiveness stays the same at every level. What does that tell you about how God weighs what we bring Him?
- Leviticus 5:15 speaks of trespassing in “the holy things of the LORD.” What belongs to God in your life that could be treated as common without you noticing?
- Verse 16 requires the harm repaid with a fifth added. Where does repentance in your own life need to become repayment rather than regret?
- Leviticus 5:17 leaves a man guilty of a command he never realised he had broken. How does that verse land on a conscience that feels clear, and where does it send you for help?
When you have worked through the chapter, test what stayed with you: Leviticus 5 Quiz with Answers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a sin offering and a guilt offering?
The sin offering, the chatat, dealt with defilement and cleansed the worshipper’s standing before God. The guilt offering, the asham, called the trespass offering in the King James, dealt with measurable damage done to what belonged to God, so it added a valuation in silver and a repayment with a fifth part on top (Leviticus 5:15-16). Leviticus 5:6 uses both names of a single animal, which is why readers find the line hard to draw in this chapter.
Is Leviticus 5:1-13 the sin offering or the trespass offering?
Bible teachers disagree. Verse 6 calls the animal a trespass offering and a sin offering in the same sentence, so some commentators read the whole chapter as the trespass offering, while others read verses 1 to 13 as the close of the sin offering law begun in Leviticus 4 and treat verse 14 as the true start of the trespass offering. Both sides agree on what the worshipper actually did; the disagreement is over the label.
What were “the holy things of the LORD”?
They were the portions set apart for God and for the priests who served Him: the firstfruits of the harvest (Leviticus 23:9-14), the firstborn of the flocks (Leviticus 27:26-27), the tithe (Leviticus 27:30-33), and anything a person had vowed to Him (Leviticus 27:1-25). The priests and Levites received no tribal inheritance of land (Numbers 18:20-24), so those portions were how they lived. Malachi later called withholding them robbing God (Malachi 3:8), and it left His servants short at the same time.
How much is a tenth of an ephah of flour?
Roughly two litres, about two quarts, though estimates of the ephah differ and older commentators give figures ranging from about three and a half pints to three and a half quarts. Either way it is a small amount, a few handfuls that almost any household could find.
Why does my Bible’s Leviticus 5 end at verse 19 when another edition has 26 verses?
Hebrew Bibles carry seven more verses in this chapter, numbering them 5:20-26, and English Bibles print those same seven verses as Leviticus 6:1-7. Nothing is missing from either edition. The trespass offering law runs past the point where the English chapter break falls, which is why Leviticus 6 opens by continuing a subject that seemed to have ended.
Where is the ritual for the guilt offering described?
Leviticus 7:1-7 carries it. Chapter 5 says what the offering is for, what animal to bring, and what to repay, then stops short of the altar work itself, leaving the killing of the ram and the handling of its blood to the priestly instructions two chapters later.
Do Christians still bring offerings for sin?
No. Hebrews 10:17-18 says that where God remembers sins no more, there is no more offering for sin, because Christ offered Himself once for all. What carries over from Leviticus 5 is the confession it required first: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Leviticus 5, The Full Text (KJV)
Read the full chapter below for reference.
1 And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity.
2 Or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcase of an unclean beast, or a carcase of unclean cattle, or the carcase of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him; he also shall be unclean, and guilty.
3 Or if he touch the uncleanness of man, whatsoever uncleanness it be that a man shall be defiled withal, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty.
4 Or if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man shall pronounce with an oath, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these.
5 And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing:
6 And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD for his sin which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats, for a sin offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin.
7 And if he be not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring for his trespass, which he hath committed, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, unto the LORD; one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering.
8 And he shall bring them unto the priest, who shall offer that which is for the sin offering first, and wring off his head from his neck, but shall not divide it asunder:
9 And he shall sprinkle of the blood of the sin offering upon the side of the altar; and the rest of the blood shall be wrung out at the bottom of the altar: it is a sin offering.
10 And he shall offer the second for a burnt offering, according to the manner: and the priest shall make an atonement for him for his sin which he hath sinned, and it shall be forgiven him.
11 But if he be not able to bring two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, then he that sinned shall bring for his offering the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering; he shall put no oil upon it, neither shall he put any frankincense thereon: for it is a sin offering.
12 Then shall he bring it to the priest, and the priest shall take his handful of it, even a memorial thereof, and burn it on the altar, according to the offerings made by fire unto the LORD: it is a sin offering.
13 And the priest shall make an atonement for him as touching his sin that he hath sinned in one of these, and it shall be forgiven him: and the remnant shall be the priest’s, as a meat offering.
14 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
15 If a soul commit a trespass, and sin through ignorance, in the holy things of the LORD; then he shall bring for his trespass unto the LORD a ram without blemish out of the flocks, with thy estimation by shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for a trespass offering:
16 And he shall make amends for the harm that he hath done in the holy thing, and shall add the fifth part thereto, and give it unto the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him.
17 And if a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the LORD; though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity.
18 And he shall bring a ram without blemish out of the flock, with thy estimation, for a trespass offering, unto the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance wherein he erred and wist it not, and it shall be forgiven him.
19 It is a trespass offering: he hath certainly trespassed against the LORD.
