Leviticus / Question
Leviticus requires a person who has cheated, stolen, or dealt falsely to restore what was taken in full and add a fifth. The repayment is made on the day the guilt is realized, and then a ram is brought as a guilt offering. The priest makes atonement for the person afterward (Leviticus 6:1–7).
In Leviticus 6:1–7, Yahweh describes cases where someone wrongs a neighbor through deceit—misusing a deposit, cheating in an agreement, robbery, extortion, lying about found property, or backing the lie with an oath. These verses sit within Leviticus’ opening block on offerings (roughly chs. 1–7), where different situations call for different sacrifices and procedures. The focus here is the restitution offering: wrongdoing that involves real loss to another person and deception in speech.
Leviticus 6:1–7 treats dishonest behavior toward another person as more than a private dispute. The text explicitly frames deceit against a neighbor as “a breach against Yahweh,” meaning the wrong has a Godward dimension even when it looks like ordinary property trouble. The passage also joins two kinds of repair.
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Leviticus 6:1-7, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
1Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
2If anyone sins, and commit a trespass against Yahweh, and deal falsely with his neighbor in a matter of deposit, or of bargain, or of robbery, or have oppressed his neighbor,
3or have found that which was lost, and deal falsely therein, and swear to a lie; in any of all these things that a man does, sinning therein;
4then it shall be, if he has sinned, and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took by robbery, or the thing which he has gotten by oppression, or the deposit which was committed to him, or the lost thing which he found,
5or any thing about which he has sworn falsely; he shall even restore it in full, and shall add the fifth part more thereto: to him to whom it appertains shall he give it, in the day of his being found guilty.
6He shall bring his trespass-offering to Yahweh, a ram without blemish out of the flock, according to your estimation, for a trespass-offering, to the priest:
7and the priest shall make atonement for him before Yahweh; and he shall be forgiven concerning whatever he does so as to be guilty thereby.