Thus shall he do with the bull; as he did with the bull of the sin offering, so shall he do with this: the wording in Revised Standard Version is rather awkward and should probably, in most languages, be restructured along the lines of Good News Translation. The idea is “he [the High Priest] shall proceed with this bull in exactly the same way as he did with the bull offered for his own sin.” New American Bible reads “doing with this bullock just as he did with the other sin offering bullock….”
And the priest shall make atonement for them, and they shall be forgiven: this formula is repeated in slightly different forms in each of the different cases of unintentional sin, except in the case of the High Priest himself (see 4.26b, 31b, 35b; 5.6b, 10b, 13b, 16b, 18b; 6.7). The translation should make clear that them refers to the people of Israel. But beyond this the expression has been understood in two different ways:
(1) It is interpreted as being a summary of the ritual described in the preceding verses. See, for example, Good News Translation, New English Bible, New International Version, and other versions “in this way….” But if this is the case, it is difficult to see why such an affirmation is not made at the end of the paragraph regarding the sin of the High Priest (see verse 12).
(2) The second interpretation is that this constitutes the continuation and conclusion of the ritual. That is, the High Priest adds to what has already happened, by a word or a gesture (or both) confirming explicitly the validity of what has taken place. In this case it is easy to understand why the affirmation is absent from verse 12. If this second interpretation is followed, the last half of this verse might begin with “And then the priest shall….” Or, following Jerusalem Bible, “When the priest has performed the rite of atonement over the people, they will be forgiven.” See also Traduction oecuménique de la Bible and New Jerusalem Bible.
The final expression be forgiven in either case is passive and must be changed to active form in some languages. While the agent is not expressed, it is clearly God who will forgive the people. So it may be necessary to say “and God will forgive them” or “they obtain God’s forgiveness.”
Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .