When Moses said his family will now accept cash

 Welcome to the Daily Bible Chapter. My name is James Leroy Wilson and I invite you to join me as we discover new insights and new perspectives from a very old book.

I'm reading Young's Literal Translation (YLT) and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Leviticus 5

Verse 1 made no sense to me in the YLT, which only speaks in the present tense. Even in the NRSV I had to look up the word "adjuration." I think the point is that you should speak up if you have knowledge of a matter, even if it doesn't really concern you personally or is "none of your business."

I suppose this means that if you were a previously unknown witness to, say, a murder, you must come forward. This is the right thing to do; you would want a witness to do so if you were falsely accused. 

Verses 2-6 talk about some of the sins that are not in themselves immoral" becoming unclean by touching what is unclean, and speaking out of ignorance. Whatever the hygienic concerns there may have been, I think this is saying that one should be mindful of one's surroundings and of one's thoughts.

What's interesting in verse 15 is that  paying money can now replace animal sacrifice. Maybe there was too much food for the priests. 

All in all, sacrifices are required for sins, even when the sins were mere mistakes where it seems no real harm was done.

And who receives the offerings of food and, now, cash? The priests.

That is, Moses's family.

Even when there are some sensible proclamations and commandments, the whole system of offerings seems at best fishy. But the threat to the people was very real. 

The Israelites weren't making offerings to some "invisible" theoretical construct called God through ignorance or blind faith, they were complying with whatever that was in that strange cloud which they themselves could see.

James Leroy Wilson writes Daily Miracles, The Daily Bible Chapter, JL Cells, and The MVP Chase. Thanks for your subscriptions and support!

(Photo credit: TyshkunVictor)