Leviticus 6

1 And the LORD said to Moses, 2 “ If someone sins and acts unfaithfully against the LORD by deceiving his neighbor in regard to a deposit or security entrusted to him or stolen, or if he extorts his neighbor 3 or finds lost property and lies about it and swears falsely, or if he commits any such sin that a man might commit — 4 once he has sinned and becomes guilty, he must return what he has stolen or taken by extortion, or the deposit entrusted to him, or the lost property he found, 5 or anything else about which he has sworn falsely. He must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value, and pay it to the owner on the day he acknowledges his guilt. 6 Then he must bring to the priest his guilt offering to the LORD: an unblemished ram of proper value from the flock. 7 In this way the priest will make atonement for him before the LORD, and he will be forgiven for anything he may have done to incur guilt.” The Burnt Offering (Leviticus 1:1–17) 8 Then the LORD said to Moses, 9 “Command Aaron and his sons that this is the law of the burnt offering: The burnt offering is to remain on the hearth of the altar all night, until morning, and the fire must be kept burning on the altar. 10 And the priest shall put on his linen robe and linen undergarments, and he shall remove from the altar the ashes of the burnt offering that the fire has consumed and place them beside it. 11 Then he must take off his garments, put on other clothes, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a ceremonially clean place. 12 The fire on the altar shall be kept burning; it must not be extinguished. Every morning the priest is to add wood to the fire, arrange the burnt offering on it, and burn the fat portions of the peace offerings on it. 13 The fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it must not be extinguished. The Grain Offering (Leviticus 2:1–16) 14 Now this is the law of the grain offering: Aaron’s sons shall present it before the LORD in front of the altar. 15 The priest is to remove a handful of fine flour and olive oil, together with all the frankincense from the grain offering, and burn the memorial portion on the altar as a pleasing aroma to the LORD. 16 Aaron and his sons are to eat the remainder. It must be eaten without leaven in a holy place; they are to eat it in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting. 17 It must not be baked with leaven; I have assigned it as their portion of My offerings made by fire. It is most holy, like the sin offering and the guilt offering. 18 Any male among the sons of Aaron may eat it. This is a permanent portion from the offerings made by fire to the LORD for the generations to come. Anything that touches them will become holy.” 19 Then the LORD said to Moses, 20 “ This is the offering that Aaron and his sons must present to the LORD on the day he is anointed: a tenth of an ephah of fine flour as a regular grain offering, half of it in the morning and half in the evening. 21 It shall be prepared with oil on a griddle; you are to bring it well-kneaded and present it as a grain offering broken in pieces, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. 22 The priest, who is one of Aaron’s sons and will be anointed to take his place, is to prepare it. As a permanent portion for the LORD, it must be burned completely. 23 Every grain offering for a priest shall be burned completely; it is not to be eaten.” The Sin Offering (Leviticus 4:1–35; Leviticus 5:1–13) 24 And the LORD said to Moses, 25 “Tell Aaron and his sons that this is the law of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered, the sin offering shall be slaughtered before the LORD; it is most holy. 26 The priest who offers it shall eat it; it must be eaten in a holy place, in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting. 27 Anything that touches its flesh will become holy, and if any of the blood is spattered on a garment, you must wash it in a holy place. 28 The clay pot in which the sin offering is boiled must be broken; if it is boiled in a bronze pot, the pot must be scoured and rinsed with water. 29 Any male among the priests may eat it; it is most holy. 30 But no sin offering may be eaten if its blood has been brought into the Tent of Meeting to make atonement in the Holy Place; it must be burned.

✦ What the text says

## Summary Leviticus 6 continues legislation on restitution for offenses against a neighbor that are treated as offenses "against Yahweh," followed by priestly instructions for the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the sin offering — specifying who may eat them, where, and under what conditions of holiness. ## Key words - *nefesh* ("anyone/a person", H5315J) — grammatically feminine singular, used as the generic subject for "a person" who commits the offense described in v.2. - *ma'al* ("unfaithfulness", H4604) — a noun paired with its cognate verb *ma'alah* (v.2), a "doubling" construction (verb + noun of the same root) that intensifies the accusation: deceiving a neighbor is classified as unfaithfulness *against Yahweh* (*ba-Yahweh*, H3068G with prefix H9003). - *torat* ("law/procedure of", H8451) — construct form ("X of...") that opens each new ritual section (torat ha-olah, torat ha-minchah, torat ha-chatta't), structuring the chapter as a series of technical instructions rather than narrative. - *qodesh qadashim* ("holy of holies / most holy thing", H6944G, doubled) — a superlative construction (noun + same noun in plural) applied to the guilt offering (v.25), the grain offering (v.17), and the sin offering, marking the highest grade of sanctity among offerings. - *tamid* ("continually", H8548) — an adverbial noun modifying the fire (v.13) and the grain offering (v.20), stressing uninterrupted repetition rather than a single act. ## What the text says The chapter's verbal architecture relies heavily on chains of sequential perfect verbs (vav + perfect continuing a future/conditional sense): *ve-hayah... ve-ashem... ve-heshiv... ve-shillam* (vv.4–5) lay out, step by step, what "will happen" once guilt is established — sin, guilt, restitution, and a fifth added as penalty. This chaining lets Hebrew narrate a legal procedure as if it were a sequence of events, something English must render with separate clauses ("he must... then he must..."). For the offerings, niphal (passive/reflexive) forms dominate — *tishachet* ("it will have its throat cut", H7819A), *te'akhel* ("it will be eaten", H0398), *tekaseh* type formulas — describing ritual actions without naming the human agent explicitly, since the priest's role is assumed from context. The piel verb *kipper* ("he will make atonement", H3722A, v.7) is intensive, marking the priest's action as a specific ritual category distinct from ordinary "covering." The hophal *tuqad* ("it will burn", H3344, vv.9,12,13) is a causative-passive: the fire "is caused to burn," reinforcing that its perpetuity is a maintained condition, not a spontaneous event. ## Differences between versions In v.2 the LXX renders *ma'al ba-Yahweh* ("act unfaithfully against Yahweh") as "disregarding the commandments of the Lord" (παριδὼν παρίδῃ τὰς ἐντολὰς κυρίου), shifting the Hebrew's abstract-noun accusation toward a more explicit reference to commandments. The Vulgate compresses v.4 drastically: where the Hebrew (and LXX) list four specific categories of wrongdoing to be restored (robbery, oppression, deposit, lost item), the Vulgate simply states "convicta delicti" ("the offense having been proven"), omitting the itemized list found in the Hebrew text.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.