Leviticus 5:13

Summary

The verse closes the law of the graduated sin offering (for those too poor to bring an animal): the priest performs atonement for the person's sin, forgiveness is granted, and what remains of the flour offering goes to the priest, following the same rule as the standard grain offering.

Key words

• khiPer ("he will make atonement", H3722A) — piel stem (intensive/factitive), sequential perfect continuing the narrative chain; the priest is grammatical subject of the atoning action.
• chattaTo ("his sin", H2403B) — feminine singular noun in construct state with pronominal suffix, linking the atonement directly to the specific sin committed.
• nisLach ("it will be forgiven", H5545) — niphal stem (passive/reflexive), sequential perfect; no agent of forgiveness is stated grammatically, the verb simply describes the resulting state.
• hayeTah ("it will belong", H1961) — qal sequential perfect, feminine subject (referring back to the offering), establishing the priest's right to what remains.
• minChah ("grain offering", H4503G) — feminine singular noun used here as a point of comparison (ka- "like the") for how the leftover material is treated.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of three sequential perfects (ve- + perfect), a common Biblical Hebrew construction for narrating consecutive results: first khiPer ("he will make atonement"), then nisLach ("it will be forgiven"), then hayeTah ("it will belong"). This chain presents three linked outcomes rather than three independent statements: the priest's act, the resulting forgiveness, and the disposition of the remaining offering.

The verb nisLach is niphal, meaning the text states only that forgiveness "happens" to the person (lo, "to him") without naming who forgives — the grammar keeps the acting party implicit. The phrase chattaTo asher chata ("his sin that he sinned", H2403B + H2398) uses a construct noun followed by a finite verb from the same root, a common Hebrew intensifying pattern that ties the noun tightly to the verbal action it names. Finally, the comparison ka-minChah ("like the grain offering") uses the ke- preposition to place this offering's leftover-handling under the same rule already established for standard grain offerings, without repeating those rules explicitly.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew states only that the remainder "will belong to the priest, like the grain offering" without a specific word for "remainder." The LXX makes this explicit with τὸ δὲ καταλειφθὲν ("the thing left over"), and the Vulgate similarly adds "reliquam... partem" ("the remaining part"), both supplying a noun that clarifies what the Hebrew leaves implicit through the comparative clause alone.