Leviticus 4:3, commentary and pictures

The sin of the anointed priest falls under the sin offering appointed for a priest or for the whole congregation. Its blood was carried into the holy place, sprinkled before the veil, and put upon the horns of the golden altar. Its fat was burned on the altar of burnt offering in the court, and the body of the victim was burned outside the camp.

In the Mosaic dispensation sin offerings were required in addition to a tenth of all increase. The tithe was therefore not the standard of giving. The Levitical system was distinguished by the sanctification of property through many required returns to God.

Those divine claims were kept paramount in almost every article. They included ransom for the first-born son, first-fruits of flocks, and the first gathering of the harvest. They included the corners of harvest fields left for the destitute, what dropped in reaping left for the poor, and lands left to produce spontaneously for the needy once in seven years. They included sacrificial offerings, trespass offerings, and sin offerings, remission of all debts every seventh year, expenses for hospitalities and gifts to the poor, and assessments upon property.

The requirement rested on all in proportion to possession rather than on a particular class, and the amount required grew with the amount bestowed. One entrusted with ten or twenty thousand dollars must give not only the tithing proportion but also present sin offerings and thank offerings, the larger the capital entrusted the more valuable the gift required. At stated periods the people were questioned whether they had faithfully performed their vows. The conscientious returned about one-third of all income for religious interests and the poor, besides freewill offerings for special objects such as the tabernacle in the wilderness and the temple at Jerusalem, which were required for their own good and to sustain divine service.