The following legislation concerns purification offerings as remedies for inadvertent sins of the entire community (15:22–26) or of an individual (15:27–29). Notice how Numbers 15 roughly follows the order in Leviticus, which prescribes burnt, grain, and well-being offerings in chapters 1–3 and purification offerings in chapter 4.

Numbers 15:27–29 simply reiterates the requirement of a female goat as the purification offering of an individual, adding only the stipulation that the animal be a year old (cf. Lev. 4:27–35). However, 15:22–26 significantly modifies the sacrifice for the community. In Leviticus 4:13–21, the sin of the community requires only the purification offering of a bull, the same as for the sin of the high priest (Lev. 4:3–12). But in Numbers 15, th…