"5 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 6 “Speak to the people of Israel, When a man or woman commits any of the sins that people commit by breaking faith with the Lord, and that person realizes his guilt, 7 he shall confess his sin that he has committed. And he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong. 8 But if the man has no next of kin to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution for wrong shall go to the Lord for the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement with which atonement is made for him. 9 And every contribution, all the holy donations of the people of Israel, which they bring to the priest, shall be his. 10 Each one shall keep his holy donations: whatever anyone gives to the priest shall be his.”"
Numbers 5:5-10
These verses deal with the question of guilt and restitution, and the regulations laid down here supplement Leviticus 6:17 (which see). In both passages what is in view is the damage done and loss sustained through wrong dealing between man and man. In both, such wrong acts against a fellow man are regarded as sins or 'breaches of faith' against the Lord. In both, the demand for restitution to be made includes the addition of a fifth part of the original principal. What is new here is the additional provision that if the wronged person has no kinsman (8) the restitution must not nevertheless be left unpaid, but should go to the priest who, as the Lord's representative, stands in the place of the injured party, in much the same way as the State does in modern law. Only thus would the act of atonement be completed. This is in fact the law of the trespass offering. 'Trespass' differs from 'sin' in that trespass involves injury to another, whether man or God. All trespass is sin; but all sin is not trespass.
This ordinance provides another illustration of the way in which the Lord's people were to be kept and their character maintained, if the divine Presence was to continue among them. This purging and purifying of the fellowship is reflected in various ways in the Old Testament itself, as for example in the story of the sin of Achan in Joshua 7, and the paralysing effect it had on the forward march of Israel. The lesson is the same as in 14: the people of God cannot prevail in the work of the kingdom as long as there is sin in the camp. It must be dealt with.