Charles Ellicott Commentary Leviticus 4:3

"if the anointed priest shall sin so as to bring guilt on the people, then let him offer for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto Jehovah for a sin-offering." — Leviticus 4:3 (ASV)

The priest that is anointed. — To illustrate this law, the conduct of the high priest is cited as the first instance, to show when and how this exalted official is to offer the sin offering in question. In this way, the Levitical law indicates that even the chief of the priesthood was only a frail being like the rest of the people, and was exposed to the same infirmities as the laity, thus preventing the assumption of spiritual superiority. Therefore, the Apostle remarks, the law made those high priests who had infirmity, and who needed daily to offer up sacrifices, first for their own sins, and then for the people’s; but our high priest, Christ Jesus, was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens (Hebrews 7:27–28).

The phrase “the priest that is anointed” for “the high priest” is restricted to this book, where it occurs four times (Leviticus 4:3; Leviticus 4:5; Leviticus 4:16; Leviticus 6:15 in the Hebrew text, verse 22 in English translations). “The great priest,” or high priest, is the designation used in the other parts of the Pentateuch (Leviticus 21:10; Numbers 35:25; Numbers 35:28), and in Joshua (Joshua 20:6); while in the later books of the Old Testament this official is called chief priest (2 Kings 25:18; 2 Chronicles 19:11; 2 Chronicles 24:11; 2 Chronicles 26:20; 2 Chronicles 31:10; Ezra 7:5).

He is called “the anointed priest,” because, like Aaron, he alone was anointed when he succeeded to the high office, while the ordinary priests were simply consecrated. Their anointing descended with them throughout all future generations by virtue of being the descendants of Aaron. (See Leviticus 8:12.)

According to the sin of the people. — This means that, having committed in ignorance the same sin as the common people, he is as liable to it as they are. From the phrase “against any commandments of the Lord” in the preceding verse, as well as from Leviticus 10:6; Leviticus 21:10–15, it is clear that the sin of ignorance referred to here does not refer to the unintentional neglect of his official duty, which falls to the high priest as the spiritual head of the people, but to any offense whatsoever committed in ignorance.

According to the marginal reading, to make the people guilty, or more literally, to the guilt of the people, which is equally valid, the meaning of the passage is that by committing a sin, he causes the people to transgress, because they follow his example; or that, due to the intimate connection that existed between the representative of the nation and the people, the sin of the one was the sin of the other. (1 Chronicles 21:3.)

A young bullock. — Literally, a steer, the son of a bull. The sacrificial rules that existed at the time of Christ minutely defined the respective ages of the bullock: the steer, the son of a bull, and the calf. The bullock or ox which was brought as a sacrifice had to be three years old: “the steer the son of a bull,” rendered in this passage, and in the Authorized Version generally, by “a young bullock” (Exodus 29:1; Leviticus 4:14; Leviticus 16:3; Leviticus 23:8, and elsewhere), had to be two years old; while the calf had to be in its first year.