Leviticus Chapter 4 verse 13 Holy Bible
And if the whole congregation of Israel err, and the thing be hid from the eyes of the assembly, and they have done any of the things which Jehovah hath commanded not to be done, and are guilty;
read chapter 4 in ASV
And if all the people of Israel do wrong, without anyone's knowledge; if they have done any of the things which by the Lord's order are not to be done, causing sin to come on them;
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And if the whole assembly of Israel sin inadvertently, and the thing be hid from the eyes of the congregation, and they do [somewhat against] any of all the commandments of Jehovah [in things] which should not be done, and are guilty;
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And if the whole congregation of Israel sin through ignorance, and the thing be hid from the eyes of the assembly, and they have done somewhat against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which should not be done, and are guilty;
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And if the whole congregation of Israel shall sin through ignorance, and the thing be hid from the eyes of the assembly, and they have done somewhat against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which should not be done, and are guilty;
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"'If the whole congregation of Israel sins, and the thing is hidden from the eyes of the assembly, and they have done any of the things which Yahweh has commanded not to be done, and are guilty;
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`And if the whole company of Israel err ignorantly, and the thing hath been hidden from the eyes of the assembly, and they have done `something against' one of all the commands of Jehovah `concerning things' which are not to be done, and have been guilty;
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Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerses 13-21. - The case of the whole congregation. A nation may become guilty of national sin in different ways, according to its political constitution: most directly, by the action of a popular Legislature passing a decree such as that of the Athenian assembly, condemning the whole of the Mitylenean people to death (Thucyd., 3:36), or by approving an act of sacrilege (Malachi 3:9); indirectly, by any complicity in or condoning of a sin done in its name by its rulers. The ritual of the sin offering is the same as in the case of the high priest. The elders of the congregation (according to the Targum of Jonathan, twelve in number), acting for the nation, lay their hands on the victim's head, and the high priest, as before, presents the blood, by sprinkling it seven times before the Lord, even before the vail; and putting some of the blood upon the horns of the altar which is before the Lord, that is in the tabernacle of the congregation. It is added that he shall thus make an atonement, or covering of sin, for them, and it shall be forgiven them.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(13) And if the whole congregation.--As the whole Church, in its corporate body, is no more exempt from human frailty than its highest spiritual chief, the law now prescribes the sin offering for the congregation (Leviticus 4:13-21). The case here assumed is that of the whole congregation having ignorantly committed some act which at the time of its committal they believed to be lawful, but which they afterwards discovered to be sinful. The two terms respectively rendered in the Authorised Version by congregation and assembly denote the same body of people, and are used interchangeably, so that the same congregation or assembly which inadvertently committed the sin afterwards recognised it. (Comp. Numbers 15:24-26.) An instance of such a national and congregational sin is recorded in 1Samuel 14:32, where we are told that the Israelites, after smiting the Philistines, "flew upon the spoil, and took sheep, and oxen, and calves, and slew them on the ground, and the people did eat them with the blood." According to the ancient interpretation, however, which obtained at the time of Christ, "the whole congregation of Israel" and "the assembly" here spoken of denote the great Sanhedrin, the representatives of the people, who, through error, might proclaim a decree calculated to mislead the nation, thus accounting for the apparent discrepancy between this passage and Numbers 15:22-26.
