10039. 'It is a sin [offering]' means that which has been purified in this manner from evils and falsities. This is clear from the meaning of 'sin', when this word is used to mean a sacrifice, as purification from evils and falsities. For in the original language, when sacrifices are the subject, sin is used to mean a sacrifice for sin; and by sacrifice purification from evils and falsities is meant, 9990, 9991. The fact that in the Word a sacrifice for sin is called a sin [offering], see Leviticus 4:3, 8, 14, 20-21, 24-25, 29, 33-34; 5:6, 8-9; 6:17, 25-26, 30, and elsewhere.

9991. 'And two rams without defect' means purification of the spiritual or internal man. This is clear from the meaning of 'a ram' as that which is internal and so spiritual in a person, dealt with in 2830; for the internal with a person is called spiritual and the external, natural. Purification is meant because the rams were offered as burnt offerings, and burnt offerings and sacrifices in general represented purifications from evils and falsities, or expiations, burnt offerings and sacrifices of rams representing purifications or expiations of the internal or spiritual man, which are dealt with in what follows in the present chapter, where they are the subject.