5:6a atonement: Here is seen the use of 'atonement,' Heb. kaphar, to cover. It is a thing done for men towards God. It is not 'sprinkling,' 'washing,' nor exactly 'propitiation,' though that be nearer; but there was guilt on the man, a moral offensiveness which had to be removed out of God's sight. So it was in the offering. It was really bringing his trespass to God in the offering, but in the way of a given atonement for it, by entering into it as his. In ver. 7 it is lit. 'he shall bring his trespass offering which he hath sinned.' For the burnt-offering, which was also to make atonement kaphar, see ch. 1:4.