151 God spoke to Moses: 2 "Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them, When you enter your homeland that I am giving to you 3 and sacrifice a Fire-Gift to God, a Whole-Burnt-Offering or any sacrifice from the herd or flock for a Vow-Offering or Freewill-Offering at one of the appointed feasts, as a pleasing fragrance for God, 4 the one bringing the offering shall present to God a Grain-Offering of two quarts of fine flour mixed with a quart of oil. 5 With each lamb for the Whole-Burnt-Offering or other sacrifice, prepare a quart of oil and a quart of wine as a Drink-Offering. 6 "For a ram prepare a Grain-Offering of four quarts of fine flour mixed with one and a quarter quarts of oil 7 and one and a quarter quarts of wine as a Drink-Offering. Present it as a pleasing fragrance to God. 8 "When you prepare a young bull as a Whole-Burnt-Offering or sacrifice for a special vow or a Peace-Offering to God, 9 bring with the bull a Grain-Offering of six quarts of fine flour and two quarts of oil. 10 Also bring two quarts of wine as a Drink-Offering. It will be a Fire-Gift, a pleasing fragrance to God. 11 "Each bull or ram, each lamb or young goat, is to be prepared in this same way. 12 Carry out this procedure for each one, no matter how many you have to prepare. 13 "Every native-born Israelite is to follow this procedure when he brings a Fire-Gift as a pleasing fragrance to God. 14 In future generations, when a foreigner or visitor living at length among you presents a Fire-Gift as a pleasing fragrance to God, the same procedures must be followed. 15 The community has the same rules for you and the foreigner living among you. This is the regular rule for future generations. You and the foreigner are the same before God. 16 The same laws and regulations apply to both you and the foreigner who lives with you." 17 God spoke to Moses: 18 "Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them, When you enter the land into which I'm bringing you, 19 and you eat the food of that country, set some aside as an offering for God. 20 From the first batch of bread dough make a round loaf for an offering - an offering from the threshing floor. 21 Down through the future generations make this offering to God from each first batch of dough.
22 "But if you should get off the beaten track and not keep the commands which God spoke to Moses, 23 any of the things that God commanded you under the authority of Moses from the time that God first commanded you right up to this present time, 24 and if it happened more or less by mistake, with the congregation unaware of it, then the whole congregation is to sacrifice one young bull as a Whole-Burnt-Offering, a pleasing fragrance to God, accompanied by its Grain-Offering and Drink-Offering as stipulated in the rules, and a he-goat as an Absolution-Offering. 25 The priest is to atone for the entire community of the People of Israel and they will stand forgiven. The sin was not deliberate, and they offered to God the Fire-Gift and Absolution-Offering for their inadvertence. 26 The whole community of Israel including the foreigners living there will be absolved, because everyone was involved in the error. 27 "But if it's just one person who sins by mistake, not realizing what he's doing, he is to bring a yearling she-goat as an Absolution-Offering. 28 The priest then is to atone for the person who accidentally sinned, to make atonement before God so that it won't be held against him. 29 "The same standard holds for everyone who sins by mistake; the native-born Israelites and the foreigners go by the same rules.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Numbers 15:1-29
Commentary on Numbers 15:1-21
(Read Numbers 15:1-21)
Full instructions are given about the meat-offerings and drink-offerings. The beginning of this law is very encouraging, When ye come into the land of your habitation which I give unto you. This was a plain intimation that God would secure the promised land to their seed. It was requisite, since the sacrifices of acknowledgment were intended as the food of God's table, that there should be a constant supply of bread, oil, and wine, whatever the flesh-meat was. And the intent of this law is to direct the proportions of the meat-offering and drink-offering. Natives and strangers are placed on a level in this as in other like matters. It was a happy forewarning of the calling of the Gentiles, and of their admission into the church. If the law made so little difference between Jew and Gentile, much less would the gospel, which broke down the partition-wall, and reconciled both to God.
Commentary on Numbers 15:22-29
(Read Numbers 15:22-29)
Though ignorance will in a degree excuse, it will not justify those who might have known their Lord's will, yet did it not. David prayed to be cleansed from his secret faults, those sins which he himself was not aware of. Sins committed ignorantly, shall be forgiven through Christ the great Sacrifice, who, when he offered up himself once for all upon the cross, seemed to explain one part of the intention of his offering, in that prayer, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. It looked favourably upon the Gentiles, that this law of atoning for sins of ignorance, is expressly made to extend to those who were strangers to Israel.