Offerings that poor people may give
7 The person may not have enough money to bring an animal as his sin offering. If so, he must pay for his sin with two doves or two young pigeons. He must bring them to the Lord. One bird will be a sin offering. The second bird will be a burnt offering.
5:7 Doves and pigeons are birds that were clean. God allowed people to eat them.
8 He must take his birds to the priest. The priest will first offer to the Lord the bird that is for a sin offering. He must break the bird's neck, but he must not remove the head from the body. 9 He must shake some of the blood onto the side of the altar. Then he must pour the blood that remains onto the ground in front of the altar. That bird is a sin offering. 10 The priest must then offer the other bird as a burnt offering. He must do this in the way that the rules say he should. This is how the priest will make the person clean from their sin. God will forgive the person when the priest does this.
11 The person may not have enough money to bring two doves or two young pigeons. If so, he must pay for his sin with a tenth of an ephah of the best flour. That will be his sin offering. He must not put any olive oil or incense on the flour, because it is a sin offering. 12 He must take it to the priest. The priest must take some of the flour in his hand. He will burn this on the altar as a gift to the Lord, together with the other gifts. The smell of the offering will give pleasure to the Lord. It is a sin offering to the Lord. 13 In this way the priest will make the person clean from any of these sins that he has done. God will forgive the person when the priest does this. The flour that remains will belong to the priest, as the grain offerings do.” ’
5:11A tenth of an ephah is about 2 litres, or 1 kilogram of flour.
