You’re guilty when you don’t know it
1If you defy an order to testify in a legal dispute about what you did or didn’t see, you’re guilty. You’ve sinned, and you’ll suffer the consequences. 2If you touch something you’re not supposed to touch, such as a dead wild animal, dead livestock, or dead critters that once crawled on the ground, you’ve become ritually unclean [1] even if you don’t realize it. You’re guilty.3If you touch any part of a person that is ritually unclean, [2] you’re unclean even if you don’t realize it. You’re guilty. 4If you mouth off with a foolish promise to do something you don’t intend to do, whether it’s for good or bad, you’re guilty of sinning even if you didn’t realize it at first. If you come to your senses and realize you did wrong, you’re still guilty.
How to get forgiven
5In any of these situations, when you finally realize what you did was wrong, you’ve got to acknowledge it. Confess you’ve sinned.6To get rid of your guilt, you need to bring an offering to the LORD: one of your female sheep or goats. This will be a sin offering. The priest will offer the sacrifice to atone for your sin and to get you back on track with the LORD.
7If you can’t afford a lamb, bring two birds [3]—either doves or pigeons. Sacrifice one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. [4] 8Take them to the priest. He’ll offer the first one as a sin offering. He should kill it by popping its head at the front of the neck, but not popping it off. 9The priest should splash some of the blood on the sides of the altar and then drain the rest at the base of the altar. That’s what you do for a sin offering.
10The second bird is a burnt offering, so the priest will follow procedures for that sacrifice. These offerings will atone for your sin and put you back on track with God. You won’t be guilty anymore. You’ll be forgiven.
11If you’re not able to sacrifice two birds, you can bring two quarts (about two liters) of fine flour. That will become your sin offering. Don’t add any olive oil or incense to this offering. 12Give it to the priest. He’ll scoop out a handful [5] and burn it on the altar. This is a sin offering to the LORD that goes up in smoke. 13With this, the priest makes the atonement for your sin, and all is forgiven. The priest keeps the rest of the flour, as he does with a grain offering.
Sin at the worship center
14The LORD gave these instructions to Moses: 15If you accidentally mishandle or do anything else wrong with something related to the worship center, [6] which belongs to the LORD, you need to bring the LORD a guilt offering. [7] Bring a male sheep—a ram. Make sure there’s nothing wrong with it. Or, instead of sacrificing the ram, you can bring the ram’s value in silver. Follow the currency weights used by the worship center. [8] 16If you damage anything at the worship center, pay to have it fixed; make full restitution. Then add 20 percent and give it to the priest. The priest will take the ram and sacrifice it as a guilt offering. This will atone for your sin, and you’ll be forgiven.17If you accidentally break one of the LORD’s rules, you’re guilty even if you don’t realize it. And you’ll be held accountable. 18Take a healthy ram to the priest. This will be your guilt offering. Make sure there’s nothing wrong with the ram. The priest will sacrifice it to atone for your accidental sin. You’ll be forgiven. 19This is a guilt offering, and you absolutely were guilty as sin.
