Numbers 15:26, commentary and pictures

Forgiveness was promised to the whole congregation of Israel together with the strangers dwelling among them when they sinned without knowing it. That pardon came only through the appointed sacrifice and the priest's atonement, showing how guilt was removed in ancient Israel. Doing wrong in ignorance is still sin and guilt that must be borne and atoned for, for sincerity in a wrong course does not make it right. Such ignorance makes the sin less heinous than willful presumption, but it does not make it sinless. When the sin becomes known it must be repented of and the appointed steps taken to receive forgiveness. Presumptuous sins that are willfully persisted in have no such remedy, but bring death and cutting off from Israel and from life.

Context and Provision

God's pardoning mercy is displayed in the provision that all the congregation with the sojourning stranger should be forgiven when all the people were in ignorance. When the congregation transgressed the commandments through ignorance, the people including resident strangers could be forgiven after the prescribed sacrifice and priestly atonement. Ignorance did not make the transgression something other than sin, but it made atonement and forgiveness available for it, and this shows how ancient Israel received forgiveness of sins for both Israelites and the stranger living among them.

The verse stands in a chapter that also records the Sabbath-breaking sin as presumptuous rather than ordinary. That chapter shows Sabbath breaking to be abhorrent to God and gives teaching about acceptable offering. Its regulation, illustrated by the special and flagrant case where the man who in defiance gathered sticks on the Sabbath was stoned, was a temporary sanitary or police adaptation to that people, time, and wilderness environment, distinct from the eternal Decalogue constitution of God's government.

Ignorance, Atonement, and Inclusion

Forgiveness was for all the congregation of Israel when the people transgressed through ignorance, including the resident strangers and foreigners living among them, after the prescribed sacrifice was brought and the priest made atonement for them. When the congregation sinned unknowingly the pardon extended to the whole body together, because the strangers were counted as included in the congregation and shared its rites, privileges, legal protection, and responsibilities. The prescribed offerings applied when the people repented after their sin was made known, and they provided no remedy for those who willfully persisted in sin.

Failing to observe the commandments in ignorance is still sin and guilt that must be borne, and sincerity in a wrong course does not make it right, even when it leaves no sense of guilt. Ignorance does not make the transgression something other than sin; it makes atonement and forgiveness available for it through the offering for ignorance brought before the Lord. Ignorance makes such sins less heinous than deliberate presumption, but it does not make them sinless and does not leave a person entirely free from sin.

A person can therefore be guilty of sin without yet knowing it, and when the sin comes to knowledge steps must be taken to receive forgiveness by repentance and the required offering. Sins committed unknowingly still require repentance and forgiveness once they become known, and the people were accountable to make the offering for forgiveness at that time. In contrast, presumptuous sins bring the penalty of death, and those who willfully persist are cut off from Israel and from life. One law for sins of ignorance applied equally to the native-born Israelite and to the stranger, and this provision reveals how God regards sin and points forward to the atonement made in the present time.