You shall do the same on the seventh day of the month for any one who has sinned through error or ignorance: You shall do the same refers to the same process of sacrificing a bull and daubing its blood on the entrance to the Temple, on the altar, and on the east gateway’s entrance. The seventh day of the month refers to the seventh day of the first month of the year. The repetition of the ritual after seven days is for any one who has sinned through error or ignorance. One who has sinned through error is someone who sins “unintentionally” (Good News Translation), “accidentally” (Contemporary English Version), “without meaning to” (New International Reader’s Version). The Hebrew verb rendered sinned through error is also used to describe how sheep stray and wander away from the straight path (see 34.6, where it is translated “wandered”). Any one who has sinned through … ignorance refers to a person who is immature and inexperienced, a person who does not know better, who sins “without knowing it” (New Century Version; compare Pro 1.4, where the Hebrew word for ignorance is translated “simple”).

So you shall make atonement for the temple: By doing the ritual a second time, especially on behalf of those who have not sinned deliberately, the Temple will be made ritually clean. The Hebrew pronoun for you is plural, referring to the Israelites. For make atonement, see 43.20. This clause may be rendered “By doing this, you will make the Temple ready for my [God’s] service.”

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .