The common people - עם הארץ am haarets, the people of the land, that is, any individual who was not a priest, king, or ruler among the people; any of the poor or ordinary sort. Any of these, having transgressed through ignorance, was obliged to bring a lamb or a kid, the ceremonies being nearly the same as in the preceding cases. The original may denote the very lowest of the people, the laboring or agricultural classes.

The law relative to the general cases of sins committed through ignorance, and the sacrifices to be offered on such occasions, so amply detailed in this chapter, may be thus recapitulated. For all sins and transgressions of this kind committed by the people, the prince, and the priest, they must offer expiatory offerings. The person so sinning must bring the sacrifice to the door of the tabernacle, and lay his hands upon its head, as in a case already referred to, acknowledging the sacrifice to be his, that he needed it for his transgression; and thus he was considered as confessing his sin, and the sin was considered as transferred to the animal, whose blood was then spilt to make an atonement. See Clarke on Leviticus 1:4 (note). Such institutions as these could not be considered as terminating in themselves, they necessarily had reference to something of infinitely higher moment; in a word, they typified Him whose soul was made an offering for sin, Isaiah 53:10. And taken out of this reference they seem both absurd and irrational. It is obviously in reference to these innocent creatures being brought as sin-offerings to God for the guilty that St. Paul alludes 2 Corinthians 5:21, where he says, He (God) made him to be sin (ἁμαρτιαν, a sin-offering) for us Who Knew No Sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God - holy and pure by the power and grace of God, in or through him. And it is worthy of remark, that the Greek word used by the apostle is the same by which the Septuagint, in more than fourscore places in the Pentateuch, translate the Hebrew word הטאה hattaah, sin, which in all those places our translation renders sin-offering. Even sins of ignorance cannot be unnoticed by a strict and holy law; these also need the great atonement: on which account we should often pray with David, Cleanse thou me from secret faults! Psalm 19:12. How little attention is paid to this solemn subject! Sins of this kind - sins committed sometimes ignorantly, and more frequently heedlessly, are permitted to accumulate in their number, and consequently in their guilt; and from this very circumstance we may often account for those painful desertions, as they are called, under which many comparatively good people labor. They have committed sins of ignorance or heedlessness, and have not offered the sacrifice which can alone avail in their behalf. How necessary in ten thousand cases is the following excellent prayer! "That it may please thee to give us true repentance; to forgive us all our sins, negligences, and ignorances; and to endue us with the grace of thy Holy Spirit, to amend our lives according to thy Holy Word." - Litany.

all the fat

Leviticus 4:8-10,19,26,35 And he shall take off from it all the fat of the bullock for the sin offering; the fat that covers the inwards...

Leviticus 3:3-5,9-11,14-16 And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire to the LORD; the fat that covers the inwards...

a sweet

Leviticus 1:9,13,17 But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice...

Leviticus 3:3,5 And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire to the LORD; the fat that covers the inwards...

Leviticus 8:21 And he washed the inwards and the legs in water; and Moses burnt the whole ram on the altar: it was a burnt sacrifice for a sweet smell...

Exodus 29:18 And you shall burn the whole ram on the altar: it is a burnt offering to the LORD: it is a sweet smell...

Ezra 6:10 That they may offer sacrifices of sweet smells to the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king, and of his sons.

Job 42:8 Therefore take to you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering...

Psalm 40:6,7 Sacrifice and offering you did not desire; my ears have you opened: burnt offering and sin offering have you not required...

Psalm 51:16,17 For you desire not sacrifice; else would I give it: you delight not in burnt offering...

Psalm 69:30,31 I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving...

Isaiah 42:21 The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable.

Isaiah 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed...

Matthew 3:17 And see a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Ephesians 5:3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becomes saints;

Hebrews 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power...

Hebrews 9:12,14,15 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place...

Hebrews 10:12,14 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God...

1 Peter 2:4,5 To whom coming, as to a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious...

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another...

1 John 4:9,10 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world...

Revelation 5:9 And they sung a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for you were slain...

and the priest

Leviticus 4:26,35 And he shall burn all his fat on the altar, as the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings...