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Leviticus 14 · a question people ask

Why a trespass offering, if he didn't do anything wrong?

In the text

The chapter doesn't say. It tells what is done: one male lamb is offered "for a trespass offering" (14:12), "for as the sin offering is the priest’s, so is the trespass offering. It is most holy" (14:13), and its blood goes on the right ear, thumb and big toe (14:14). With the sin offering, the priest makes atonement "because of his uncleanness" (14:19). Leviticus gives no reason why this cleansing needs a trespass offering, and any explanation goes beyond the text.

The verses

““The priest shall take one of the male lambs, and offer him for a trespass offering, with the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before the LORD. He shall kill the male lamb in the place where they kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the place of the sanctuary; for as the sin offering is the priest’s, so is the trespass offering. It is most holy. The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.”
Leviticus 14:12-14 · World English Bible
““The priest shall offer the sin offering, and make atonement for him who is to be cleansed because of his uncleanness. Afterward he shall kill the burnt offering;”
Leviticus 14:19 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Leviticus 14

Leviticus 14: In the day of his cleansing

Leviticus 14 heals no one. It brings someone already healed all the way back: the priest goes out of the camp to him, two birds, seven days outside his tent, and on the eighth day blood and oil on his right ear, thumb and big toe, where only priests had been marked before. Jesus sent a cleansed leper to this law: "offer for your cleansing the things which Moses commanded" (Mark 1:44).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions