41 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying, 2 'Speak unto the sons of Israel, saying, When a person doth sin through ignorance against any of the commands of Jehovah 'regarding things' which are not to be done, and hath done 'something' against one of these— 3 'If the priest who is anointed doth sin according to the guilt of the people, then he hath brought near for his sin which he hath sinned a bullock, a son of the herd, a perfect one, to Jehovah, for a sin-offering, 4 and he hath brought in the bullock unto the opening of the tent of meeting before Jehovah, and hath laid his hand on the head of the bullock, and hath slaughtered the bullock before Jehovah. 5 'And the priest who is anointed hath taken of the blood of the bullock, and hath brought it in unto the tent of meeting, 6 and the priest hath dipped his finger in the blood, and sprinkled of the blood seven times before Jehovah, at the front of the vail of the sanctuary; 7 and the priest hath put of the blood on the horns of the altar of spice-perfume before Jehovah, which 'is' in the tent of meeting, and all the blood of the bullock he doth pour out at the foundation of the altar of the burnt-offering, which 'is' at the opening of the tent of meeting. 8 'And all the fat of the bullock of the sin-offering he doth lift up from it, the fat which is covering over the inwards, and all the fat which 'is' on the inwards, 9 and the two kidneys, and the fat which 'is' on them, which 'is' on the flanks, and the redundance above the liver, (beside the kidneys he doth turn it aside), 10 as it is lifted up from the ox of the sacrifice of the peace-offerings; and the priest hath made them a perfume on the altar of the burnt-offering. 11 'And the skin of the bullock, and all its flesh, besides its head, and besides its legs, and its inwards, and its dung— 12 he hath even brought out the whole bullock unto the outside of the camp, unto a clean place, unto the place of the pouring out of the ashes, and he hath burnt it on the wood with fire; beside the place of the pouring out of the ashes it is burnt.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Leviticus 4:1-12
Commentary on Leviticus 4:1-12
(Read Leviticus 4:1-12)
Burnt-offerings, meat-offerings, and peace-offerings, had been offered before the giving of the law upon mount Sinai; and in these the patriarchs had respect to sin, to make atonement for it. But the Jews were now put into a way of making atonement for sin, more particularly by sacrifice, as a shadow of good things to come; yet the substance is Christ, and that one offering of himself, by which he put away sin. The sins for which the sin-offerings were appointed are supposed to be open acts. They are supposed to be sins of commission, things which ought not to have been done. Omissions are sins, and must come into judgment: yet what had been omitted at one time, might be done at another; but a sin committed was past recall. They are supposed to be sins committed through ignorance. The law begins with the case of the anointed priest. It is evident that God never had any infallible priest in his church upon earth, when even the high priest was liable to fall into sins of ignorance. All pretensions to act without error are sure marks of Antichrist. The beast was to be carried without the camp, and there burned to ashes. This was a sign of the duty of repentance, which is the putting away sin as a detestable thing, which our soul hates. The sin-offering is called sin. What they did to that, we must do to our sins; the body of sin must be destroyed, Hebrews 13:11-13.