If it is …: these words are also used in verses 13, 22, and 27. They serve to set apart the four different cases described in these paragraphs.

The anointed priest: on the word priest see 1.5. On the idea of “anointing,” see 8.10. According to 6.22; 8.12; and 16.32, it is without question “the High Priest” who receives the anointing with oil, which indicates his special consecration, although there are other texts (7.35-36 and 10.7) which seem to indicate that all the priests were so anointed. In this verse it is best to translate explicitly “the High Priest,” since the Hebrew has the definite article the before anointed priest.

Thus bringing guilt on the people: or “thereby causing all the people to be guilty of sin.” Another way of saying this might be “transmitting guilt to everyone in the community” or “thereby making the people also become guilty” (New American Bible). The High Priest, the intermediary between God and the people, is not considered a mere private individual whose affairs concern only himself. He is, rather, a public person whose actions affect all those he represents before God.

For the sin which he has committed: literally “the sin which he has sinned.” The noun and the verb have the same root. In some languages this repetition of information may be omitted as stylistically unacceptable, even though it seems to add emphasis in the original. In Good News Translation it has been shortened to “for his sin” and has been placed at the end of the sentence in accordance with natural English usage. If the noun is used here, it should be noted that the collective singular is unnatural in some languages and should be translated by a plural, that is, “sins.”

A young bull: literally “a (young) bull, a son of the herd.” The idea of youth is not essential to the meaning of the word and has been omitted in some translations (New Jerusalem Bible and New American Standard Bible), but most versions retain it. And for the expression “son of the herd,” see the discussion under 1.5. This expression is usually omitted as redundant in most languages.

Without blemish: see 1.3 and the text of 22.17-25.

For a sin offering: see the discussion of this expression under the section heading for this chapter.

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 .