Bible Strands
Leviticus 5:19
It is a guilt offering; he was certainly guilty before the LORD.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator concludes the priestly instructions for a guilt offering, addressing the worshiper who brought an unblemished ram for a wrong committed in ignorance. This statement formally designates the sacrifice and confirms the offender’s liability.
The words — אָשָ֖ם ('a.Sham) appears twice, literally meaning “[is] a guilt offering” and “he was guilty,” while אָשֹׁ֥ם ('a.Shom) intensifies the condition as “certainly guilty.” These terms establish the ritual’s function as a precise accounting of debt before Yahweh.
The thread — The motif of concrete liability before God recurs in covenant breaches and restitution demands, such as Ezra 10:2 and Malachi 3:8. The direct offense against divine authority noted in Psalms 51:4 mirrors this passage’s emphasis on personal guilt requiring formal resolution.
Why it lands — The text requires acknowledgment that sin creates a measurable breach demanding specific restitution. It asks the reader to treat moral failure as a factual debt that must be settled through the prescribed means.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
It is a trespass offering: he hath certainly trespassed against the Lord.
Cross-references
- Ezra 10:2 Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, an Elamite, said to Ezra: “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the people of the land, yet in spite of this, there is hope for Israel.
- Psalms 51:4 Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be proved right when You speak and blameless when You judge.
- Malachi 3:8 Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you ask, ‘How do we rob You?’ In tithes and offerings.
- 2 Corinthians 5:19 that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s trespasses against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.