A guilt offering ( he, אשם, ’āšām, translation=guilt, trespass; plural ), also referred to as a trespass offering (

KJV The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of K ...

, 1611), was a type of Biblical sacrifice, specifically a sacrifice made as a compensation payment for unintentional and certain intentional transgressions. It was distinct from the Biblical

sin offering A sin offering ( he, קָרְבַּן חַטָּאת, ''korban ḥatat'', , lit: "purification offering") is a sacrificial offering described and commanded in the Torah (Lev. 4.1-35); it could be fine flour or a proper animal.Leviticus 5:11 A sin ...

Hebrew Bible

Guilt offerings or trespass offerings were mandated in Leviticus, chapters 5 to 7, where references are made to the offering "for sin" or "for sins". In the Greek

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond ...

, the phrase used is the offering ''peri tes plemmeleias'' (περὶ τῆς πλημμελείας). The transgressor furnished an unblemished ram for sacrifice at the

Temple in Jerusalem The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two now-destroyed religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jeru ...

, as well as (in cases of sins against holy items, theft, commission of fraud or false oaths) monetary compensation to the victim for their loss, plus a mark-up of 20% of the value to cover the priest's earnings. Monetary restitution had to be given in the pre-exile version of the currency (the ''

shekel Shekel or sheqel ( akk, 𒅆𒅗𒇻 ''šiqlu'' or ''siqlu,'' he, שקל, plural he, שקלים or shekels, Phoenician: ) is an ancient Mesopotamian coin, usually of silver. A shekel was first a unit of weight—very roughly —and became c ...

of the sanctuary''), rather than the currency of the time, giving rise to a need for currency exchange in the Temple (hence the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

narrative of

Jesus and the Money Changers The cleansing of the Temple narrative tells of Jesus expelling the merchants and the money changers from the Temple, and is recounted in all four canonical gospels of the New Testament. The scene is a common motif in Christian art. In this acc ...

). Such compensation payments were given on occasion of: "The final offering is the guilt offering, also called the restitution or reparation offering. ... Three cases are given in which a person had to offer a guilt offering: sinning against a holy item, committing an unknown sin, and swearing falsely in a matter concerning money." *infringing the rights of the priests to portions of other sacrifices (referred to in the text as ''God's holy things'') *committing an unknown sin - as these infringements were uncertain and possibly had not occurred at all, this was voluntary (''just in case'') and there was no restitution element *swearing falsely in a matter concerning money This was also given as part of the purification process for ''tzaraath''. Guilt offerings are mentioned in . The Philistines are told by priests and fortune-tellers to make an offerings of five golden mice and five golden hemorrhoids in hopes of ending the mice and hemorrhoids that had plagued them since taking the ark of God from Israel. The images of golden mice and golden hemorrhoids are used in the offering.

English Translations

Translations of the Old Testament which use the phrase 'Guilt Offering' include the English Standard Version (ESV), New International Version (NIV) and Revised Standard Version (RSV). Translations which use the phrase 'Trespass Offering' include the 1599 Geneva Bible, King James Version (KJV) and New King James Version (NKJV), the

Wycliffe Bible Wycliffe's Bible is the name now given to a group of Bible translations into Middle English that were made under the direction of English theologian John Wycliffe. They appeared over a period from approximately 1382 to 1395. These Bible translati ...

and the American Standard Version (ASV). The Good News Bible (GNT) uses the phrase 'Repayment Offering'.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guilt Offering Hebrew Bible words and phrases Jewish sacrificial law Law of Moses Book of Leviticus