Commentaria in Leviticum
Verse 3. [And if he touch any thing of the uncleanness of man], according to any uncleanness wherewith he is wont to be defiled (that is, of all those things in which men were wont to be defiled by the law of Moses, as in verse 2 he was legally defiled who touched a carcass), he shall be guilty of an offence.—In Hebrew, “he hath offended,” and therefore he is guilty and subject to punishment, as to fault, and consequently will be bound to the sacrifice prescribed in verse 6, that he may expiate himself.
Verse 4. The soul that sweareth, etc., that he would do evil.—To do evil among the Hebrews is to afflict. Hence they understand by “to do evil” here to fast. So also St. Gregory, Cajetan, Vatablus and others; for fasting is the affliction of the flesh. But because “to do evil” is here opposed to “to do good,” it is better to refer this not to the swearer himself but to a third person, as if to say: A man who has sworn to afflict someone, understand justly, as when parents swear that they will chastise their children; for God speaks here of the evil of punishment, not of fault: for the evil of fault is not matter for an oath, which yet is required here, as is plain from the Hebrew, which reads thus: Concerning all that a man shall speak in an oath, or shall blurt out; for bata signifies to blurt out, or to speak rashly and inconsiderately.
Likewise verse 8 . . . “and it was unknown to him, and he was guilty,” the sense hanging on to verse 5.
And having forgotten it (so that he has not fulfilled the oath), afterwards understandeth his offence—of his oath forgotten and neglected. The Hebrew is, when he shall know that he has offended in any of these. Hence it is plain that the sacrifice which follows is to be referred to all the preceding cases; and so teaches St. Augustine, Question 1.
Verse 5. Let him do penance for his sin—that is, that he may acknowledge it, grieve for it and be contrite; otherwise the sacrifice he offers will profit him little, but to profit him it must proceed from contrition. Hence understand the same in all other sacrifices, even if it be not expressed. The Hebrew and the Chaldee have: Let him confess the sin in which he has sinned. Hence the Hebrews hand down that a special confession of sin was required here, namely this, that the offerer, having his hands between the horns of the victim, should say: “I beseech Thee, O Lord, I have sinned, I have done wrongly, I have transgressed, I did so and so; behold, I repent, and am ashamed of my deeds; I will never return to this thing.” And they hand down that the sacrifices profited nothing and did not expiate sins unless this repentance and confession were added, according to what is commanded in Numbers 5:7: “They shall confess their sin which they have done.” The Hebrews still make this special confession of sins on the day of expiation, and in place of satisfaction inflict stripes on themselves, as I have heard from themselves. See, therefore, how particular was the confession of the Jews, while heretics among Christians wish it to be general.
Verses 6 and 7. And offer of the flocks an ewe lamb or a she-goat, etc.; but if he be not able to offer a beast (the Hebrew is, if his hand cannot touch the sufficiency of a sheep, that is, if he be so poor that a sheep is not at hand), let him offer two turtles, or two young pigeons to the Lord: one for sin, and the other for a holocaust.
Note: One turtle had first to be offered for sin, then the other for a holocaust, because the praise of God is not precious in the mouth of a sinner. The flesh of the turtle immolated for sin fell wholly to the priest, nothing to God, as was done in other sacrifices for sin, as is plain from Leviticus 6:26. So Abulensis.
Tropologically St. Gregory, Hesychius and Radulphus take by the sheep, the turtle and the pigeon various modes of penance. “If thou canst not,” they say, “offer a beast, that is, do penance in the affliction of the flesh, give a turtle, that is, contrition and groaning, because thou canst not wash away sin by worthy satisfaction; give two young pigeons, that is, consecrate thy mind to contemplation and heavenly conversation, and give thyself most fully to God; wring back the head so that it cling to the neck, because he who has spent his life in delights, if, death being near and age weary, he understands the vanity of his pursuits, if he now knows how to bewail that he has lost his life, let him separate the head from the body, that is, turn the intention of the mind away from procuring the pleasures of the flesh; yet the head itself is not to be wholly broken off, because the care by which the desires of the flesh are denied is due to the sustaining of necessities,” says Radulphus.
But the truth, I think, was seen by Maurer, who interprets the place thus: “if anyone have uttered an oath that he will do this or that.” For evil and good embrace and signify anything whatever.
when he has committed an offence by one of these, then he shall confess that he has sinned in it. 6. And he shall bring his victim for his offence to the Lord, for the sin that he has sinned, a female of the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats for sin, and the priest shall purify him from his sin.
St. Gregory applies these things a little differently, book 31 of the Morals, chapter 1: “To utter an oath,” he says, “is to bind ourselves by a vow to divine service; and when we promise good works, we pledge ourselves to do well; but when we vow abstinence and the torment of our flesh, we swear to do ourselves ill for the present; but since no one is so devout as not to sin amid these very pious vows, let him offer for his sin a lamb, that is, the innocence of the active life, or a she-goat that is fed on the rocks, that is, let him gird himself for the pasture of contemplation. If he cannot do this, let him give two turtles or two young pigeons, that is, a double groan of penance, because he has both not done right things and has wrought perverse ones.”
Verse 11. And if his hand be not able to offer two turtles, etc., he shall offer for his sin the tenth part of an ephi of fine flour.—The tenth of an ephi is a gomor, which was the measure of daily food and of the manna, as I said on Exodus chapter 16, last verse. All these things pertain to all the cases preceding in this chapter, as I said above.
Allegorically, Christ is the tenth part of an ephi, or of three measures, because Christ has in Himself the fullness of the Most Holy Trinity, but as a tenth, because the humanity is much less and inferior to the Godhead. Again, as a tenth, because Christ most perfectly fulfilled the Decalogue, says Hesychius.
Tropologically, Radulphus takes by the tenth of an ephi the entire confession of sins; for ten is a full and perfect number.
He shall not put oil upon it—which according to custom by the law of Leviticus 2:1 is wont to be put in the mincha, that is, the sacrifice of fine flour. Oil is therefore forbidden here in the sacrifice for sin, the first cause of which sanction, as of the other ceremonial ones, was the will and choice of God. The second, mystical cause was that it might be signified that the sinner is without joy and light; for oil is a symbol of joy and light. So Theodoret, Procopius and Cyril, book 15 On Adoration in Spirit; for, as Cyprian says, in the sermon On the Lapsed: “What hail is to crops, a turbid star to trees, a pestilent devastation to herds, a cruel tempest to ships, that are sins to the fallen.” And St. Martial, in his letter to the Bordelais: “Sins,” he says, “are thorns, which through many bitternesses, envies and deceits, do not suffer the joy and oil of the Holy Spirit to reign in you.”
Otherwise Hesychius and Radulphus: “The sinner,” he says, “ought not to soothe himself with oil,” that is, he ought not to presume on the pardon and indulgence of sin, but be anxious and fear lest perhaps he obtain it not.