Levitico 5:16

16 E risarcirà il danno fatto al santuario, aggiungendovi un quinto in più e lo darà al sacerdote; e il sacerdote farà per lui l’espiazione col montone offerto come sacrifizio di riparazione, e gli sarà perdonato.

Levitico 5:16 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 5:16

And he shall make amends for the harm that he hath done in
the holy thing
This seems to favour the sense of the word "estimation", in the preceding verse, as understood of the estimate of the damage done in the holy things, which belonged to the priests, for which recompense was to be made according as the damage was valued:

and shall add the fifth part thereto, and give it unto the priest;
besides paying the whole damage, he was to give a fifth part of the whole to the priest; which was ordered to show the evil nature of the sin of sacrilege, though done ignorantly, and to make men careful and cautious of committing it: the fifth part, according to the Jewish writers ^F6, is the fourth part of that of which a man eats, ("viz." of the holy things,) which is the fifth of the whole; thus, if he eats the value of a penny, he pays the penny and the fourth part of one, and so it is in all the fifths mentioned in the law; or, as Ben Gersom on the place expresses it, if he has had profit by the holy things to the value of four shekels, he pays five shekels; for the fifth of the shekels they add the fifth part to the four shekels; in this he observes, all are alike, the priest, the anointed, the prince, and a private person, for the law makes no difference between them in this:

and the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the
trespass offering;
by offering it up for him:

and it shall be forgiven him;
after he has paid the whole damage, and a fifth part besides, and offered the trespass offering for atonement; (See Gill on Leviticus 5:10).

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Trumot, c. 6. 1.

Levitico 5:16 In-Context

14 L’Eterno parlò ancora a Mosè, dicendo:

15 "Quand’uno commetterà una infedeltà e peccherà per errore relativamente a ciò che dev’esser consacrato all’Eterno, porterà all’Eterno, come sacrifizio di riparazione, un montone senza difetto, preso dal gregge, secondo la tua stima in sicli d’argento a siclo di santuario, come sacrifizio di riparazione.

16 E risarcirà il danno fatto al santuario, aggiungendovi un quinto in più e lo darà al sacerdote; e il sacerdote farà per lui l’espiazione col montone offerto come sacrifizio di riparazione, e gli sarà perdonato.

17 E quand’uno peccherà facendo, senza saperlo, qualcuna delle cose che l’Eterno ha vietato di fare, sarà colpevole e porterà la pena della sua iniquità.

18 Presenterà al sacerdote, come sacrifizio di riparazione, un montone senza difetto, preso dal gregge, secondo la tua stima; e il sacerdote farà per lui l’espiazione dell’errore commesso per ignoranza, e gli sarà perdonato.