Shifting from the unintentional offenses of the entire community (verses 22-26), the LORD’s instructions now shift in parallel fashion to those cases involving individuals (verses 27-29).

If one person sins unwittingly …: This clause begins with the Hebrew waw conjunction, which both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation omit. As in verse 22, it introduces a new subsection, so it may be rendered “Now” or deleted. New International Version and New International Readers Version render this conjunction “But,” which we do not recommend since it does not introduce a contrast here. The person who sins unintentionally can be male or female. The Hebrew word for person is nefesh, which is a feminine noun, but the Hebrew pronouns for him and he at the end of verse 28 are masculine. However, if a choice must be made in the language, then the masculine form should be used since a man would be the most likely offender in such cases. If the expression sins unwittingly sounds like a contradiction in the language, then the term for “err” that was used in verse 22 may be used here as well. For unwittingly see verse 24.

He shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering: The sin offering for an unintentional offense of the whole community is “one male goat” (verse 24), but for the error of an individual it is a female goat a year old.

And the priest shall make atonement before the LORD for the person who commits an error, when he sins unwittingly, to make atonement for him; and he shall be forgiven: See verse 25. Good News Translation renders before the LORD as “At the altar.” Verse 28 repeats the ideas of “making atonement” and “sinning inadvertently” to emphasize them. Good News Translation removes both occurrences of the “unintentional” nature of the sin here. But the repetition emphasizes the non-wilful nature of the offense, so we recommend keeping at least one instance of this notion. If such repetition is kept in translation, it may sound especially effective when the text is read aloud. New International Readers Version provides a model here that keeps the repetition as follows:

• With it [that is, the sin offering] the priest will pay for the person’s sin in the sight of the LORD. He will do it for the one who did wrong by sinning without meaning to. When the sin is paid for, that person will be forgiven.

Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .