He shall lay his hand upon the head: by means of this gesture the person offering the sacrifice identifies himself as the one who is offering the animal, and in a sense he offers himself to God through the sacrificial animal. This gesture is important when a larger animal is offered to the LORD, since there may be several persons who physically bring the animal to the altar (compare verses 10 and 14, where this gesture is not mentioned in connection with a smaller animal or a bird). In those languages where it is necessary to specify which hand is laid on the head of the animal, this should be the right hand.
By using the noun “man” in place of the pronoun he, Good News Translation makes it clear that it is the person offering the sacrifice and not the priest who places his hand on the head of the animal.
Upon the head of the burnt offering: the reference is clearly to the head of the animal which is brought as a burnt offering, but the gesture is made before it is actually burned.
It shall be accepted: this passive expression will have to be rendered actively in many languages. Since the implied subject is God, it may be translated “God will accept it….” Note that in the previous verse this verb is taken to refer to the person offering the sacrifice, but in this case it seems to refer to the animal that is “regarded as good” by the LORD.
To make atonement for him: the Hebrew verb translated by this phrase appears often in the ritual of sacrifices offered to obtain forgiveness from God. The original meaning of the root word in Hebrew seems to have been “cover” or possibly “wipe off,” but this meaning may have been lost. The idea of “atonement” is found nearly fifty times in Leviticus. It may signify either the means of undoing ritual defilement or the resultant reconciliation with God, who has been offended by a violation of his laws (or possibly both ideas may have been involved). The basic idea seems to be that of restoring harmony or putting things back in proper order. In this context it seems to indicate a particular ritual gesture on the part of the priest, who is charged to announce to the faithful that their sins have been forgiven (see 4.20). God is the one who pardons, and as a sign of forgiveness he accepts the animal sacrifice. In some languages it may be preferable to give a clearer statement by saying “Then the LORD will accept his offering and will pardon his sins.” In other languages the word “pardon” or “forgive” has been rendered by such idiomatic expressions as “turn his back on sin,” “heal the neck,” or “God has spat on the ground for us.”
Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .