Can deliberate sins be forgiven in Leviticus?
Some can — the guilt offering opens forgiveness for deliberate fraud against a neighbor once the offender confesses and repays what was taken — but the law also draws a hard boundary at devoted, sacred property, where Achan's deliberate theft receives no offering at all and ends in execution.
Yes, some deliberate sins can be forgiven — but the law is careful about which ones, and it shows its own limit with a stark example.
The sin offering of Leviticus 4 only covers sin committed בִּשְׁגָגָה (bishgagah), "unwittingly" — by mistake, in ignorance. It was never built to reach something a person did on purpose. The guilt offering's second movement is different. It opens with the same offense-word used for sacrilege, מָעַל (ma'al, H4603, paired with its cognate noun H4604, "trespass"), but now aimed at deliberate fraud: a denied deposit, robbery, extortion, a false oath (Leviticus 6:1-3). These are not slips. And the very same remedy applies — restore the principal, add the fifth, bring the ram, and:
"The priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord, and he shall be forgiven for any of the things that he did to incur guilt." — Leviticus 6:7
The text even says a wrong against a neighbor counts as ma'al against Yahweh himself (Leviticus 6:2) — there is no such thing as a purely horizontal sin. So deliberate fraud, confessed and repaid, does have a door open to it. That is precisely the ground the unwitting-sin offering of Leviticus 4 did not cover.
But the law is not infinitely elastic, and Scripture shows exactly where it stops. The same ma'al construction that names sacrilege in Leviticus 5:15 reappears almost word for word in Joshua: "The sons of Israel committed a trespass against the devoted things" (Joshua 7:1) — Achan's theft of cherem, property placed under an irrevocable ban to God from the conquest of Jericho. No guilt offering rescues him. He is executed (Joshua 7:25). The difference is what was taken: a neighbor's deposit can be returned with a fifth added; devoted, sacred property that has been placed entirely outside ordinary use cannot simply be handed back and topped off. The remedy has a boundary, and Achan sits on the far side of it. The text remembers the lesson, too — when a rival altar is built later, the accusers cite Achan by name as the warning case (Joshua 22:20).
So the answer has two parts, and both matter: confessed, repayable fraud against a neighbor can be forgiven through the guilt offering; theft from what is irrevocably devoted to God cannot be repaid at all, and the law does not pretend otherwise.
Want to trace the exact wording that links Leviticus 5:15 to Achan's story, and see how the pattern is quoted back within the Bible itself? Read the full study on the guilt offering.
Does the Bible require you to pay back what you stole before God forgives you?
Yes — in the law of the guilt offering, a person who defrauded or stole from someone repays the full amount plus a fifth, and only after that restitution is made does the priest pronounce forgiveness.
How is Jesus the guilt offering of Isaiah 53:10?
Isaiah 53:10 says the Servant's own life is made an asham, the same Hebrew word used for the guilt offering in Leviticus — a claim confirmed by every pre-Christ Hebrew manuscript that preserves the verse, though the Greek Old Testament and the New Testament never carry the specific word across, choosing sin-offering vocabulary instead.
What is the guilt offering in the Bible?
The guilt offering (asham) is the Old Testament sacrifice for wrongs that involve a loss to someone else — it requires the offender to repay what was taken, add a fifth on top, and then bring a ram before the priest can pronounce forgiveness.
What's the difference between the sin offering and the guilt offering?
The sin offering (chatat) purges sin as a defilement that needs cleansing, while the guilt offering (asham) repairs sin as a debt that needs repaying — they are different kinds of remedy, not a milder and a stricter version of the same one.