Say to Aaron and his sons: This is the law of the victim for sin: in the place where the holocaust is offered, it shall be immolated before the Lord. It is holy of holies.

Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the law of the sin-offering. At the place where the burnt-offering is slaughtered shall the sin-offering be slaughtered before Jehovah: it is most holy.

Say to Aaron and his sons, This is the law for the sin-offering: the sin-offering is to be put to death before the Lord in the same place as the burned offering; it is most holy.

Say to Aaron and his sons: This is the law of the victim for sin. In the place where the holocaust is offered, it shall be immolated in the sight of the Lord. It is the Holy of holies.

Alloquere Aharon et filios ejus, dicendo, Ista eat lex hostile pro peccato, In loco in quo mactabitur hostia holocausti mactabitur hostia pro peccato coram Jehova, quia sanctificatio sanctificationum est.

Speak unto Aaron. We everywhere see how carefully God provided that the people should have no doubts about anything. And assuredly true religion is distinguished from false imaginations by this peculiar mark, that God Himself prescribes what is to be done. Nor can certainty, though religion ought to be based upon it, be derived elsewhere than from His own mouth. Now, because there was a difference between burnt-offerings and sin-offerings, it would have been natural to kill them separately in different, places, unless the error had been anticipated; but all doubt, is removed when God assigns the same place to them both. Whence, too, we gather that one law suffices for the proper worship of God, if men are not wise in their own conceits, but depend on His mouth. For how came it to pass that, whilst these two kinds of oblations differed from each other, the rule respecting them was the same on this point, except because it so pleased God? This passage, therefore, sufficiently reminds us with how great sober-mindedness and modesty it becomes us to follow what is pointed out to us in God's word. A reason, however, is at the same time added, which may invite reverence to be paid to the sin-offerings, when especial sanctity is attributed to them, which, according to the idiom of the Hebrew language, is called "holiness of holinesses." Moreover, Moses begins to distinguish between cht'h, chateah, [1] and 'sm, asham, which the Latins translate peccatum, and delictum, though he had before used them indifferently to express the same thing. What the difference was, I confess, I know not; I see the guesses of others, but nothing certain.

Footnotes

1 - A. V., "The sin-offering and the trespass-offering." Michaelis has affirmed that the former was a sacrifice for sins of commission, and the latter for sins of omission: but the Hebrew lexicographer, J. Simons, has observed that this distinction is by no means compatible with the text in all instances. Professor James Robertson, "Clavis Pentat.," in a note on Leviticus 4:3, gives other opinions about the distinction, but expresses himself as most approving of that which supposes the first to be an offering for offenses against the First Table of the Decalogue: the second for those against the Second Table. -- W.

The place where - See Leviticus 1:11.
It is most holy - See Leviticus 2:3. The key to the special sanctity of the flesh of the sin-offering, as set forth in Leviticus 6:26-30, must, it would seem, be found in the words of Moses to the priests Leviticus 10:17. The flesh of the victim, which represented the sinner for whom atonement was now made, was to be solemnly, and most exclusively, appropriated by those who were appointed to mediate between the sinner and the Lord. The far-reaching symbolism of the act met its perfect fulfillment in the One Mediator who took our nature upon Himself. Philippians 2:7.

In the place where the burnt-offering is killed, etc. - The place here referred to was the north side of the altar. See Leviticus 1:11.

Speak unto Aaron, and to his sons, saying, this is the law of the sin offering,.... Or the rules to be observed concerning that, besides what had been already delivered in Leviticus 4:1,
in the place where the burnt offering is killed shall the sin offering be killed before the Lord; and that was on the north side of the altar, see Leviticus 1:11 and so Aben Ezra and Ben Gersom observe, that the place of slaying every sin offering was the north; and some have observed that Mount Calvary, where our Lord was crucified, lay pretty much to the north of Jerusalem, see Psalm 48:2,
it is most holy; sacred to the Lord, offered up to him, and accepted by him, and typical of the most pure and holy sacrifice of Christ, who was made sin, and an offering for sin, in the room and stead of his people.

THE LAW OF THE SIN OFFERING. (Leviticus 6:21-30)
This is the law of the sin offering--It was slain, and the fat and inwards, after being washed and salted, were burnt upon the altar. But the rest of the carcass belonged to the officiating priest. He and his family might feast upon it--only, however, within the precincts of the tabernacle; and none else were allowed to partake of it but the members of a priestly family--and not even they, if under any ceremonial defilement. The flesh on all occasions was boiled or sodden, with the exception of the paschal lamb, which was roasted [Exodus 12:8-9]; and if an earthen vessel had been used, it being porous and likely to imbibe some of the liquid particles, it was to be broken; if a metallic pan had been used it was to be scoured and washed with the greatest care, not because the vessels had been defiled, but the reverse--because the flesh of the sin offering having been boiled in them, those vessels were now too sacred for ordinary use. The design of all these minute ceremonies was to impress the minds, both of priests and people, with a sense of the evil nature of sin and the care they should take to prevent the least taint of its impurities clinging to them.