אָשָׁם

n.m. offence, guilt—א׳ Gn 26:10 + 37 times sf. אֲשָׁמוֹ Nu 5:7 + 7 times— offence, trespass, fault ψ 68:22 (guiltiness RV). guilt Gn 26:10 (J) Pr 14:9 Je 51:5. compensation, לְהָשִׁיב הָאָשָׁם אֵלָיו to whom to return the compensation (or satisfaction for injury) Nu 5:8; cp. v 7 (P; restitution for guilt RV). trespass-offering (AV, but guilt-offering RV) used only in Lv 5, 6:10; 7, 14, 19:21, 22 Nu 6:12; 18:9 (P), & Ez 40:39; 42:13; 44:29; 46:20, cf. Ezr 10:19. This offering seems to have been confined to offences against God or man that could be estimated and so covered by compensation. The ordinary trespass-offering was a ram, together with restitution and a penalty of a fifth of its value. The tresspass-offerings of the leper and Nazirite were he-lambs Lv 14 Nu 6:12; if the person who suffered wrong or his kinsmen were not living the fine went to the priests. The victims were offered, the blood and fat pieces going to the altar, the skin and flesh to the priests. There seems to have been no application of the blood to the horns of the altar (the chief ceremony of the sin-offering) because the guilt was not expiated at the altar but by compensation to the wronged person or his representative. A part of the blood of the leper’s trespass-offering was applied to his person to consecrate him (as in the case of the ram of consecration to consecrate the priests Lv 8:23). The trespass-offering is unknown to JED and the older Hebrew literature. However, the Philistines send an אשׁם of golden mice and tumours 1 S 6:3, 4, 8, 17, and an אשׁם of money was given to the priests 2 K 12:17, but these are entirely different from the trespass-offering of P. The Messianic servant offers himself as an אשׁם in compensation for the sins of the people, interposing for them as their substitute Is 53:10 (incorrectly offering for sin AV RV). See further OehlerOT Theol. § 137 Di Lv 5:14.