Leviticus 4:34, commentary and pictures

This verse belongs to the daily ministration carried on day by day throughout the year. It prescribes the sin offering for a ruler or for one of the common people. In this form the blood is not taken or carried into the holy place to be sprinkled before the veil, but is put with the finger upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering. The flesh of this offering is to be eaten by the priest in a holy place in the court of the tent of meeting, by which he bears the iniquity of the congregation.

This differs from the offering for a priest or for the whole congregation, where the blood is carried into the holy place and sprinkled before the veil and put on the horns of the golden altar, the fat is burned on the altar of burnt offering in the court, and the body is burned without the camp. Day by day the repentant sinner brought the victim, laid the hand on its head and confessed sins, transferring them in figure to the innocent sacrifice, which was then slain because the broken law demanded the life of the transgressor, and without shedding of blood there is no remission, since the life is in the blood. Both forms of the service alike mean that the sin was transferred in figure through the blood from the penitent to the sanctuary.

The sin offering was one of God's imperative claims upon property under the Levitical dispensation, beyond the tithe, standing with trespass offerings, sacrificial offerings and thank offerings as a sanctification of property by which Israel was constantly reminded of the Giver. The requirement was proportioned to the amount possessed, so larger entrusted capital called for a more valuable gift in return, with the conscientious returning about one-third of all income for religious interests and for the poor. The same obligation rests on Christians, who must present sin offerings and thank offerings to God according to their means and not only give a proportion by the tithing system.