Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When any man has a discharge from his body, because of his discharge he is unclean. This shall be his uncleanness in his discharge: whether his body runs with his discharge, or his body has stopped from his discharge, it is his uncleanness.
“ ‘Every bed on which he who has the discharge lies shall be unclean; and everything he sits on shall be unclean. Whoever touches his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. He who sits on anything on which the man who has the discharge sat shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.
“ ‘He who touches the body of him who has the discharge shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.
“ ‘If he who has the discharge spits on him who is clean, then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.
“ ‘Whatever saddle he who has the discharge rides on shall be unclean. Whoever touches anything that was under him shall be unclean until the evening. He who carries those things shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.
“ ‘Whomever he who has the discharge touches, without having rinsed his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.
“ ‘The earthen vessel, which he who has the discharge touches, shall be broken; and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 8, 9 Whose seed either in sleeping, or else of weakness…
Whose seed either in sleeping, or else of weakness of nature issueth at his secret part.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 8 Lev 15:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and…
Lev 15:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When any man hath a running issue out of his flesh, [because of] his issue he [is] unclean.
Ver. 2. A running issue.] An involuntary flux of semin, such as David imprecateth upon Joab. {2Sa 3:29}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 7, 11 His secret parts, called
His secret parts, called
flesh, Lev 6:10; 12:3; Eze 16:26; 23:20.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 We have here the law concerning the ceremonial uncleanness…
We have here the law concerning the ceremonial uncleanness that was contracted by running issues in men. It is called in the margin (Lev 15:2) the running of the reins: a very grievous and loathsome disease, which was, usually the effect and consequent of wantonness and uncleanness, and a dissolute course of life, filling men's bones with the sins of their youth, and leaving them to mourn at the last, when all the pleasures of their wickedness have vanished, and nothing remains but the pain and anguish of a rotten carcase and a wounded conscience. And what fruit has the sinner then of those things whereof he has so much reason to be ashamed? Rom 6:21. As modesty is an ornament of grace to the head and chains about the neck, so chastity is health to the navel and marrow to the bones; but uncleanness is a wound and dishonour, the consumption of the flesh and the body, and a sin which is often its own punishment more than any other. It was also sometimes inflicted by the righteous hand of God for other sins, as appears by David's imprecation of a curse upon the family of Joab, for the murder of Abner. Sa2 3:29, Let there not fail from the house of Joab one that hath an issue, or is a leper. A vile disease for vile deserts. Now whoever had this disease upon him, 1. He was himself unclean, Lev 15:2. He must not dare to come near the sanctuary, it was at his peril if he did, nor might he eat of the holy things. This signified the filthiness of sin, and of all the productions of our corrupt nature, which render us odious to God's holiness, and utterly unfit for communion with him. Out of a pure heart well kept are the issues of life (Pro 4:23), but out of an unclean heart comes that which is defiling, Mat 12:34, Mat 12:35. 2. He made every person and thing unclean that he touched, or that touched him, Lev 15:4-12. His bed, and his chair, and his saddle, and every thing that belonged to him, could not be touched without a ceremonial uncleanness contracted, which a man must remain conscious to himself of till sunset, and from which he could not be cleansed without washing his clothes, and bathing his flesh in water. This signified the contagion of sin, the danger we are in of being polluted by conversing with those that are polluted, and the need we have with the utmost circumspection to save ourselves from this untoward generation. 3. When he was cured of the disease, yet he could not be cleansed from the pollution without a sacrifice, for which he was to prepare himself by seven days' expectation after he was perfectly clear from his distemper, and by bathing in spring water, Lev 15:13-15. This signified the great gospel duties of faith and repentance, and the great gospel privileges of the application of Christ's blood to our souls for our justification and his grace for our sanctification. God has promised to sprinkle clean water upon us, and to cleanse us from all our filthiness, and has appointed us by repentance to wash and make ourselves clean: he has also provided a sacrifice of atonement, and requires us by faith to interest ourselves in that sacrifice; for it is the blood of Christ his Son that cleanses us from all sin, and by which atonement is made for us, that we may have admission into God's presence and may partake of his favour.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–12 And the Lord spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron,....…
And the Lord spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron,.... Aaron is spoken to as well Moses, because some of these purifications, after mentioned, depended on the priest, as the affair of profluvious men and women, as Gersom observes:
saying;
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as follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 7, 11 This chapter contains laws concerning other ceremonial uncleannesses, contracted…
This chapter contains laws concerning other ceremonial uncleannesses, contracted either by bodily disease, or some natural incidents, whether in men, ver. 1-18, or in women, ver. 19- 33.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 11 Laws concerning uncleanness of men, 1-12.
CHAPTER XV
Laws concerning uncleanness of men, 1-12.
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Mode of cleansing, 13-15.
Of uncleanness, accidental and casual, 16-15.
Laws concerning the uncleanness of women, 10-27.
Mode of cleansing, 28-30.
Recapitulation of the ordinances relative to the preceding
cases, 31-33.
NOTES ON CHAP. XV
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4 Lev 15:1. The laws in this chapter, although, in…
Lev 15:1. The laws in this chapter, although, in the main, aiming at the same end with the foregoing cases, namely, to teach the necessity of moral purity, and preserve the reverence due to the worship of God, yet were also particularly intended as a restraint upon immoderate indulgences of the flesh.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v1 This chapter would seem to take its place more…
This chapter would seem to take its place more naturally before Lev 12:1-8, with the subject of which it is inmediately connected. Compare especially Lev 12:2 with Lev 15:19. It stands here between two chapters, with neither of which has it any close connection.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 11, 12 Issue of seed, shall be unclean. These legal uncleannesses…
Issue of seed, shall be unclean. These legal uncleannesses were instituted in order to give the people a horror of carnal impurities. (Challoner) --- If the gonorrhœa, and the lawful act of marriage, (ver. 16,) and nocturnal delusions, (Deuteronomy xxiii. 10,) induce a kind of uncleanness---surely to imitate Onan is most detestable, Genesis xxviii. 9. (Tirinus) --- The Jews rank the latter crime with murder, and so does Tertullian. See Exodus xxi. 22.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Sexual Impurities and Cleansings
FOURTH SECTION
Sexual Impurities and Cleansings
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Lev_15:1-33
1And the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying, 2Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When any man hath a running issue out of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean. 3And this shall be his uncleanness in his issue: whether his flesh run with his issue, or his flesh be stopped from his issue,1 it is his uncleanness. 4Every bed, whereon he lieth that hath the issue, is unclean: and every thing, whereon he sitteth, shall be unclean. 5And whosoever toucheth his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 6And he that sitteth on any thing whereon he sat that hath the issue shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 7And he that toucheth the flesh of him that hath the issue shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 8And if he that hath the issue spit upon him that is clean; then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 9And what saddle soever he rideth upon that hath the issue shall be unclean. 10And whosoever toucheth any thing that was under him shall be unclean until the even: and he that beareth any of those things shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 11And whomsoever he toucheth that hath the issue, and hath not rinsed his hands in water,2 he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 12And the vessel of earth, that he toucheth which hath the issue, shall be broken: and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water. 13And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his issue; then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean. 14And on the eighth day he shall take to him two turtle doves, or two young pigeons, and come before the Lord unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and give them unto the priest: 15and the priest shall offer them, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord for his issue.
16And if any man’s seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the even. 17And every garment, and every skin, whereon is the seed of copulation, shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the even.
18The woman also with whom Man_1:3 shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even.
19And if a woman have an issue, and4 her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and5 whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even. 20And every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean: every thing also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean. 21And whosoever toucheth her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 22And whosoever toucheth any thing that she sat upon shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 23And if it be on her bed, or on any thing whereon she sitteth, when he toucheth it, he shall be unclean until the even. 24And if any Man_1:3 lie with her at all, and her flowers be upon him, he shall be unclean seven days; and all the bed whereon he lieth shall be unclean.
25And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation: she shall be unclean. 26Every bed whereon she lieth all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the bed of her separation: and whatsoever she sitteth upon shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her separation. 27And whosoever toucheth those things6 shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 28But if she be cleansed of her issue, then she shall number to herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean. 29And on the eighth day she shall take unto her two turtles, or two young pigeons, and bring them unto the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the [om. the] congregation. 30And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for her before the Lord for the issue of her uncleanness.
31Thus shall ye separate7 the children of Israel from their uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle [dwelling place8] that is among them.
32This is the law of him that hath an issue, and of him whose seed goeth from him, and is defiled therewith; 33and of her that is sick of her flowers, and of him that hath an issue, of the man and of the woman, and of him that lieth with her that is unclean.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Lev_15:3. The Sam. and LXX. here add the clause “he is unclean during all the time his issue runneth or is stopped.”
Lev_15:11. According to the Syriac, this washing of the hands was to be the act, not of the unclean person himself, but of him whom he touched.
Lev_15:18; Lev_15:24. The Sam. adds the possessive pronoun making this “her husband.”
Lev_15:19. The Sam and 10 MSS. supply the missing conjunction.
Lev_15:19. The conjunction here is omitted by many MSS., the LXX. and Vulg.
Lev_15:27. בָּם 5 MSS. read בָּה toucheth her.
Lev_15:31. For וְהִזֵּרְתֶּם=ye shall separate, the Sam., 4 MSS., LXX., and Vulg. read הִזְהַרְתֶּם=ye shall warn; but there seems no sufficient reason for the change.
Lev_15:31. מִשְׁכַּן properly signifies dwelling-place, and although always rendered tabernacle in Ex. and Lev. in the A. V., needs to be distinguished from the אֹהֶל. Comp. note on Lev_8:10.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The whole of Lange’s Exegetical explanations under this chapter are here given. “1. In his sacrificial law, Moses has throughout translated moral conditions into ritual forms; and he has done this, under the spirit of revelation, truly with wonderful safety, striking precision, and delicacy. Accordingly he here shows the subtle, contagious effects in evil in legal pædagogic images of the sexual impurities, as they incur guilt, or are more or less innocent, in connection with original sin. In so far as our chapter refers back, it forms the climax of the preceding conditions of guilt; but in its reference to the following chapter, it forms the foundation for the idea of a general atonement for the people, still necessary after all the definite single atonements.”
“2. The law carries with it the consequence that all men are placed, by virtue of their manifold connections and contacts, under the sentence: Ye are unclean—unclean even after all more definite atonements. Haggai has drawn out this thought fully; John the Baptist brought it into application (Hag_2:13 ss., see Com. Matt. p. 68). Hence the great day of atonement must follow all the more special sin offerings, and even this can only suffice for pardonable sins; while the unpardonable sins were sent into the desert upon the he-goat designated for Azazel. The idea of the πάρεσις: Romans 3.”
“3. The cases of sexual impurity which are detailed here are the following:”
“Lev_15:1-15. Latent flowing of semen, gonorrhœa. In this sense it is called a running issue out of his flesh. This uncleanness of the highest degree, as such, is defiling on every side: touching the bed of the unclean person, his seat, his body, his saddle; being smeared with his spittle, touching anything that passes from him;—all makes unclean in the first degree for one day, and requires a washing of the clothes, and a bath. The purifying quarantine lasts for eight days. Timidly he must approach the sanctuary with two turtle-doves, or young pigeons, one of which was appointed for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering. This disease not only contaminated, but extended its contaminating power to whatever it touched. In Num_5:2, it is provided that the person so affected should be excluded from the camp.” [It does not seem altogether certain that the affection here described was gonorrhœa, although it is so translated in the LXX., Lev_15:4-6; Lev_15:8-9, etc. That the word flesh is not an euphemism (Knobel) for the organ of generation is evident from Lev_15:7; Lev_15:13; still, that the latter is in view as the seat of the issue, is more than probable from the analogy of the woman in Lev_15:19, But in regard to the character of the issue itself nothing is said. It could hardly have been hemorrhoidal, since there is no mention of blood; it is not likely to have been syphilitic (gonorrhœa virulenta), notwithstanding the opinion of Michaelis, (laws, art. 212), both because it is more than doubtful if this disease was known in antiquity, and because, if it existed, its presence would betray cause for more severe measures than are here prescribed; it may have been a gonorrhœa arising from weakness, according to the view of Lange, and as supposed by Jerome and the Rabbins; but it is noticeable that there is no mention whatever made of semen in connection with it, and in Lev_22:4, this is distinguished from “a running issue.” Or it may have been “more probably, simply blennorrhœa urethræ, a discharge of mucus arising from a catarrhal affection of the mucous membrane of the urethra (urethritis).” Keil; so too, Kalisch. In Lev_15:3, a distinction is noticed in the character of the disease which, however, was of no consequence for the purpose in hand; the issue might be continuous, or it might be temporarily retained. In either case the disease was there, and its subject was unclean. Rosenmüller would understand flesh in Lev_15:7 to be an euphemism as in Lev_15:2, and the law to cover especially the case of the physician. In Lev_15:11 a provision is made that the person affected might prevent the communication of uncleanness by his touch, by first rinsing his hands in water; thus showing that the uncleanness communicated was of a symbolical character. Lev_15:14-15 provide for a sin offering and burnt offering, of the humblest kind indeed, but yet here, as everywhere in the law, sufficient to keep alive the association between uncleanness and sin. It is declared that the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord for his issue, thus distinctly declaring his uncleanness to have been the ground of an alienation from God, to be removed by a propitiatory sacrifice.—F. G.].
“Lev_15:16-17. A single emission of seed was treated as a single uncleanness.” [It is probable that the law had in view an involuntary act; but it would, nevertheless, apply in all cases, and thus its importance in checking the fearful evil of self-pollution needs no comment.—F. G.].
“Lev_15:18. So too was the result of a man and woman sleeping together.” [This euphemism may possibly be misunderstood. The uncleanness resulted only in case of sexual intercourse, and hence abstinence from such intercourse was a necessary part of preparation for occasions especially requiring cleanness. Exo_19:15; 1Sa_21:5-6, etc. The law must have operated as an important check upon sensual passions. For proof that the same custom was common among other nations, see Knobel. It is always to be remembered, however, that this defilement is connected with the general sinful condition of man, and did not pertain to his original state. See Gen_1:28.—F. G.].
“Lev_15:19-24. The menstruation was defined as an uncleanness for seven days.” [The actual duration is not normally more than four or five days; but the period of a week seems to be fixed, partly to fully cover all ordinary cases, partly “on account of the significance of the number seven.” Keil. During all this time the woman communicated uncleanness to every person she touched: but especially (Lev_15:24) whoever had sexual intercourse with her (for Keil shows that this must be the meaning) became unclean for the full term of her uncleanness, seven days. In Lev_20:18 it is provided that in case of such intercourse both parties should be “cut off from among their people,” as having committed an abominable act. The case here provided for must therefore be that of the sudden and unexpected coming on of menstruation, so that the man became unintentionally defiled. But while uncleanness was thus strongly communicated to persons, it only affected among things those on which the woman sat or lay down. She was thus not debarred from the fulfillment of her ordinary domestic duties.
[It has already been noticed under chap. 12 that the provisions of the law in regard to child birth are intentionally separated from the present law in order to mark birth distinctly and emphatically as a subject by itself. The two things may be closely connected naturally; but when there has occurred another beginning of human life, the entrance upon the world of another immortal and accountable being, the event has a gravity and importance which requires its distinct treatment apart from the ordinary, frequently recurring conditions of life.—F. G.].
“Lev_15:25-30. The woman diseased with a bloody issue was placed under the same regulation as the man with a flow of semen.” [Blood seems to be used here (as throughout this chapter) for that which has the general appearance of blood, and is popularly called by that name. Hence what is here referred to is an issue of a menstrual character, either out of its proper time, or prolonged beyond its time. This being abnormal required the same treatment, the same exclusion from the camp (Num_5:2), and the same offering for its “atonement” as in the case of the man. Ordinary menstruation required no sacrifice.—F. G.].
“Lev_15:31. The supplement, Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel,etc., shows that these regulations are not merely typical, but also sanitary; that they aim at the duty of sexual purity, both in moral, and in bodily relation. The lying of a than with an unclean woman, Lev_15:33; Lev_15:24, is to be distinguished from the sexual intercourse (Lev_18:19; Lev_20:18”). [But see under Lev_15:19-24.—F. G.].
“That of all the impurities the sexual are rendered so prominent, shows the earnest consecration where with the law places the sexual fountain of the natural life of man under the law of chastity and holiness. So also it abhors exceedingly profanations or defilements of this fountain. On this side the rudeness of heathenism spreads through all the centuries of the Christian era like a dark shadow, while the consecration of the sex life was already announced in the centre of Israel in presage of ideal nuptials.” [On the existence of similar ordinances and customs among other nations, see Knobel, Bähr, and the various articles in the Bible Dictionaries.—F. G.].
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
I. All the defilements in this and the preceding chapters are here presented o their theocratic, not on their natural side. Nothing is anywhere said in them of means of cure. The attitude of the priest toward them is not that of the physician, aiming at their removal; but rather of the guardian of the sanctuary, first determining their existence, and then when they have been removed, undertaking the purifications by which the polluted person may be restored to his forfeited privilege of approaching God in His sanctuary, and again mingling with the holy people.
II. The object of the laws of purity is manifestly mainly moral. They may also have incidentally a hygienic purpose, but this is entirely subordinate. The main object is the maintenance of the majesty of God. Nothing impure may appear in His presence, and hence all those bodily conditions which are associated with, and suggestive of impurity, are marked as unclean, and not only the persons affected by them are excluded from the sanctuary, or even from the camp, but all contact with them is to be avoided by the holy people.
III. Very much is often said of the extreme frequency of these defilements, as if the Israelites must, under the operation of these laws, have lived in an almost perpetual state of ceremonial uncleanness. But it is to be remembered that we have in these chapters a collection of the cases of uncleanness provided for, which has upon the mind of the reader something of the effect of the perusal of a medical book; finding so many diseases enumerated, he is apt to suppose a state of disease far more common than it really is. Uncleanness, notwithstanding its apparent frequency when the account of all its varieties is collected together, was still an abnormal state, and in the great majority of cases continued only a short time, being limited by the approaching “evening” at whatever time in the day it may have occurred.
IV. In the Levitical legislation the difference between actual sin and uncleanness which was merely symbolical of sin, is made to appear very clearly. In this chapter particularly, four cases of uncleanness are mentioned, two of which (2–15, and 25–30) were simply diseases, and the other two (16–24) entirely natural and sinless; yet not only did the disease make unclean, but also that natural act or condition, which according to the Divine constitution is necessary for the perpetuation of the race in accordance with His own command. In all this there can be nothing sinful in itself; but as man’s whole condition is sinful, so are these things constituted unclean, thereby to symbolize, and impress upon the mind of man the character of his whole relation to God who is perfect in holiness.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The laws of this chapter impose many restraints upon the intercourse of the sexes; that was the will of God shown of old by definite educational precepts. It remains His will still, no longer embodied in such precepts, but announced in general principles. See 1Th_4:4.
That the defilements here spoken of were ceremonial and symbolical only, is shown by the fact (Lev_15:12) that the earthen vessel was to be broken, while the wooden one (which is also absorptive) was only to be rinsed with water. Had the defilement been actual, the law must have been the same for both. Theodoret.
The especial object of the laws of uncleanness is declared (Lev_15:31) to be lest “they defile my tabernacle.” Many things which are natural and right in this our earthly life, are yet unsuitable for the immediate presence of God. Man may, nay, under the Divine constitution of his nature, must do many things which yet are so far apart from the spirituality of the Divine Nature that they evidently need to be widely separated from acts of worship. Yet they are not thereby condemned as sinful, but only there is brought into prominence the infinite distance by which man is separated from God.
“Not only cleanness, but cleanliness also, had its meaning, embodied in religious customs, as the 15th chapter shows, in the most striking features under the law. Uncleanness may exist, even with a considerable measure of religious feeling and good-will in the forms of negligence, of false artlessness, and even of a wild geniality. In the delineation of the endlessly fine and subtle contagious power of uncleanness, there comes into view the whole mysterious connection of mankind in sinfulness, as it has been shown by the prophet Haggai (Leviticus 2), and as it lies as the foundation for the baptism of John the Baptist. Thus also this idea of the immeasurable and inscrutable contagion, and of the totality and universality of its guilt, leads to the need and the establishment of the universal and common atonement. It presages an express, great, and single Divine institution.” Lange.
Footnotes:
[1]Lev_15:3. The Sam. and LXX. here add the clause “he is unclean during all the time his issue runneth or is stopped.”
[2]Lev_15:11. According to the Syriac, this washing of the hands was to be the act, not of the unclean person himself, but of him whom he touched.
[3]Lev_15:18; Lev_15:24. The Sam. adds the possessive pronoun making this “her husband.”
[4]Lev_15:19. The Sam and 10 MSS. supply the missing conjunction.
[5]Lev_15:19. The conjunction here is omitted by many MSS., the LXX. and Vulg.
[6]Lev_15:27. בָּם 5 MSS. read בָּה toucheth her.
[7]Lev_15:31. For וְהִזֵּרְתֶּם=ye shall separate, the Sam., 4 MSS., LXX., and Vulg. read הִזְהַרְתֶּם=ye shall warn; but there seems no sufficient reason for the change.
[8]Lev_15:31. מִשְׁכַּן properly signifies dwelling-place, and although always rendered tabernacle in Ex. and Lev. in the A. V., needs to be distinguished from the אֹהֶל. Comp. note on Lev_8:10.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv9, 12 what saddle . . . he rideth upon that…
what saddle . . . he rideth upon that hath the issue shall be unclean--(See on Gen 31:34).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12 1. Unto Moses and to Aaron — There must…
1. Unto Moses and to Aaron — There must have been in the mind of Jehovah a reason for sometimes addressing Moses alone and sometimes addressing both Moses and Aaron. That reason is not revealed.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv2, 9, 11, 12 The Uncleanness of Issues and their Cleansing
The Uncleanness of Issues and their Cleansing
As regards men (1–18)
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2. an issue out of his flesh] by flesh is here meant the private parts, as in Lev_6:10, Lev_16:4. Everything which a man in this condition touched was unclean, so that anyone coming in contact with the man, or with anything that he had touched, must wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and was not considered purified until the evening.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 (1) And the Lord spake unto Moses and to…
XV.
(1) And the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron.—This chapter, which lays down the laws of uncleanness arising from issues, discusses two diseased and three natural secretions.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Leviticus 15
Leviticus 15
This chapter treats of a variety of ceremonial uncleannesses of a much less serious nature than leprosy. This latter would seem to be presented as the expression of the deep-seated energy of nature’s evil; whereas, chap. 15 details a number of things which are merely unavoidable infirmities, but which, as being, in any measure the outflow of nature, were defiling, and needed the provisions of divine grace. The divine presence in the assembly demanded a high order of holiness and moral purity. Every movement of nature had to be counteracted. Even things which, so far as man was concerned, might seem to be unavoidable weaknesses, had a defiling influence, and required cleaning, because Jehovah was in the camp. Nothing offensive, nothing unsightly, nothing in any way uncomely, should be suffered within the pure, unsullied and sacred precincts of the presence of the God of Israel. The uncircumcised nations around would have understood nothing of such holy ordinances; but Jehovah would have Israel holy, because He was Israel’s God. If they were to be privileged and distinguished by having the presence of a holy God, they would need to be a holy people.
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Nothing can be more calculated to elicit the soul’s admiration than the jealous care of Jehovah over all the habits and practices of His people. At home and abroad, asleep and awake, by day and by night, He guarded them. He attended to their food, He attended to their clothing, He attended to their most minute and private concerns. If some trifling spot appeared upon the person, it had to be instantly and carefully looked into. In a word, nothing was overlooked which could, in any wise, affect the well-being or purity of those with whom Jehovah had associated Himself, and in whose midst He dwelt. He took an interest in their most trivial affairs. He carefully attended to everything connected with them, whether publicly, socially, or privately.
This, to an uncircumcised person, would have proved an intolerable burden. For such an one to have a God of infinite holiness about his path, by day, and about his bed, by night, would have involved an amount of restraint beyond all power of endurance; but to a true lover of holiness, a lover of God, nothing; could be more delightful. Such an one rejoices in the sweet assurance that God is always near; and he delights in the holiness which is, at once, demanded and secured by the presence of God.
Reader, say, is it thus with you? Do you love the divine presence and the holiness which that presence demands? are you indulging in anything incompatible with the holiness of God’s presence? Are your habits of thought, feeling, and action, such as comport with the purity and elevation of the sanctuary? remember, when you read this fifteenth chapter of Leviticus, that it was written for your learning. You are to read it in the Spirit, for to you it has a spiritual application. To read it in any other way is to wrest it to your own destruction, or, to use a ceremonial phrase, "to seethe a kid in its mother’s milk."
Do you ask, "what am I to learn from such a section of Scripture? What is its application to me?’ In the first place, let me ask, do you not admit that it was written for your learning? This, I imagine, you will not question, seeing the inspired apostle so expressly declare that, "whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning." (Rom.15: 4) Many seem to forget this important statement, at least, in so far as the book of Leviticus is concerned. They cannot conceive it possible, that they are to learn ought from the rites and ceremonies of a by-gone age, and particularly from such rites and ceremonies as the fifteenth of Leviticus records. But, when we remember, that God the Holy Ghost has written this very chapter - that every paragraph, every verse, every line of it "is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable," it should lead us to inquire what it means. Surely, what God has written His child should read. No doubt, there is need of spiritual power to know how, and spiritual wisdom to know when, to read such a chapter; but the same holds good with respect to any chapter. One thing is certain, if we were sufficiently spiritual, sufficiently heavenly, sufficiently abstracted from nature, and elevated above earth, we should deduce nought but purely spiritual principles and ideas from this and kindred chapters. If an angel from heaven were to read such sections, how should he regard them? Only in a spiritual and heavenly light; only as the depositories of the purest and highest morality. And why should not we do the same? I believe we are not aware of what positive contempt we pour upon the sacred Volume by suffering any portion of it to be so grossly neglected as the book of Leviticus has been. If this book ought not to be read, surely it ought not to have been written. If it be not "profitable," surely it ought not to have had a place assigned it in the canon of divine inspiration; but, inasmuch as it hath pleased "the only wise God" to write this book, it surely ought to please His children to read it.
No doubt, spiritual wisdom, holy discernment, and that refined moral sense, which only communion with God can impart - all these things would be needed in order to form a judgement as to when such scripture ought to be read. We should feel strongly disposed to question the sound judgement and refined taste of a man, who could stand up and read the fifteenth of Leviticus, in the midst of an ordinary congregation. But why? Is it because it is not "divinely inspired," and, as such, "profitable?" By no means; but because the generality of persons are not sufficiently spiritual to enter into its pure and holy lessons.
What, then, are we to learn from the chapter before us? In the first place, we learn to watch, with holy jealousy, everything that emanates from nature. Every movement of, and every emanation from, nature is defiling. Fallen human nature is an impure fountain, and all its streams are polluting. It cannot send forth ought that is pure, holy, or good. This is a lesson frequently inculcated in the Book of Leviticus, and it is impressively taught in this chapter.
But, blessed be the grace that has made such ample provision for nature’s defilement! This provision is presented under two distinct forms, throughout the entire of the book of God, and throughout this section of it in particular - namely, "water and blood." Both these are founded upon the death of Christ. The blood that expiates and the water that cleanses flowed from the pierced side of a crucified Christ. (Comp. John 19: 34, with 1 John 5: 6) "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1: 7) And the word of God cleanseth our practical habits and ways. (Ps.119: 9; Eph.5: 26) Thus, we are maintained in fitness for communion and worship, though passing through a scene where all is defiling, and carrying with us a nature, every movement of which leaves a soil behind.
It has been already remarked that our chapter treats of a class of ceremonial defilement’s less serious than leprosy. This will account for the fact that atonement is here foreshadowed, not by a bullock or a lamb, but by the lowest order of sacrifice - namely, "two turtle doves." But, on the other hand, the cleansing virtue of the Word is continually introduced, in the ceremonial actions of "washing," "bathing," and "rinsing." "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word." "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word." Water held a most important place in the Levitical system of purification, and, as a type of the Word, nothing can be more interesting or instructive.
Thus we can gather up the most valuable points from this fifteenth chapter of Leviticus. We learn, in a very striking manner, the intense holiness of the divine presence. Not a soil, not a stain, not a speck can be tolerated, for a moment, in that thrice-hallowed region. "Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle that is among them." (Ver. 31.)
Again, we learn that human nature is the overflowing fountain of uncleanness. It is hopelessly defiled; and not only defiled, but defiling. Awake or asleep, sitting, standing, or lying, nature is defiled and defiling. Its very touch conveys pollution. This is a deeply-humbling lesson for proud humanity; but thus it is. The Book of Leviticus holds up a, faithful mirror to nature. It leaves "flesh" nothing to glory in. Men may boast of their refinement, their moral sense, their dignity. Let them study the third book of Moses, and there they will see what it is all really worth, in God’s estimation.
Finally, we learn, afresh, the expiatory value of the blood of Christ, and the cleansing, purifying, sanctifying virtues of the precious word of God. When we think of the unsullied purity of the sanctuary, and then reflect upon nature’s irremediable defilement, and ask the question, "However can we enter and dwell there?" the answer is found in" the blood and water" which flowed from the side of a crucified Christ - a Christ who gave up His life unto death for us, that we might live by Him. "There are three that bear record in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and," blessed be God," these three agree in one." The Spirit does not convey to our ears a message diverse from that which we find in the Word; and both the Word and the Spirit declare to us the preciousness and efficacy of the blood.
Can we not, therefore, say that the fifteenth chapter of Leviticus was "written for our learning?" Has it not its own distinct place in the divine canon Assuredly. There would be a blank were it omitted. We learn in it what we could not learn in the same way, anywhere else. True, all Scripture teaches us the holiness of God, the vileness of nature, the efficacy of the blood, the value of the Word but the chapter upon which we have been pondering presents these great truths to our notice, and presses them upon our hearts in a manner quite peculiar to itself.
May every section of our Father’s Volume be precious to our hearts. May every one of His testimonies be sweeter to us than honey and the honeycomb, and may "every one of his righteous judgements" have its due place in our souls.
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–2 RUNNING ISSUES FROM THE HUMAN BODY. These are the…
RUNNING ISSUES FROM THE HUMAN BODY. These are the fourth cause of ceremonial uncleanness. We are not to look for a moral basis for the regulation on account of any vicious habit connected with such issues. They are foul and repulsive, and simply for that reason they are causes of ceremonial uncleanness to those who suffer from them, and to those who crone in contact with persons suffering from them.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR Chapter 15Secret sins.
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Psa_19:12 1Ti_1:13. We have already had occasion to discern as a clear lesson of the old ritual that sin is a nature. The old law did not confine itself to overt acts, but insisted on "sins of ignorance" being regarded as elements of guilt (cf. chapter 4). Then again we have sin shown to originate in birth (chapter 12); we have its tangible effects strikingly illustrated in the law of the leprosy (cf. chapters 13, 14); and now we have the analysis of sin completed in these laws about issues.
I IT IS A PHYSICAL FACT THAT MEN AND WOMEN MAY BECOME UNCLEAN WITHOUT ANY ACT OF VOLITION ON THEIR PART. Into the particulars of menstruation and of gonorrhea benigna it is unnecessary to enter. The chapter before us states the fact, and asserts the legal uncleanness which is thereby entailed. If involuntary results entail uncleanness, it is clear that voluntary elements entering in (verse 18) must increase the sense of uncleanness. Experience confirms the Divine decision. There is a sense of uncleanness which arises as soon as the man or woman becomes conscious of the issue.
II IT IS EVIDENT FROM THIS THAT SIN HAS A SPHERE OF OPERATION BEYOND CONSCIOUS VOLITION. Just as physically a man or woman contracts uncleanness during the unconsciousness of sleep, so morally we find sinful issues coming forth from the evil heart and nature ere ever we are aware. In strict conformity with this fact, Jonathan Edwards was accustomed to analyze his dreams, believing that, in these involuntary movements of the mind, the moral tendencies of the indwelling spirit may often be detected, and by greater watchfulness subdued. "No mind," says Dr. Shedd, "that thinks at all upon sin can possibly stop with the outward act. Its own rational reflection hurries it away, almost instantaneously, from the blow of the murderer from the momentary gleam of the knife to the volition within that strung the muscle and nerved the blow. But the mind cannot stop here in its search for the essential reality of sin. When we have reached the sphere the inward sphere of volitions, we have by no means reached the ultimate ground and form of sin. We may suppose that because we have gone beyond the outward act because we are now within the man we have found sin in its last form. But we are mistaken. Closer thinking, and what is still better, a deeper experience, will disclose to us a depth in our souls lower than that in which volitions occur, and a form of sin in that depth, and to the bottom of it, very different from the sin of single volitions. The thinking mind which cannot stop with mere effects, but seeks for first causes, and especially the heart that knows its own plague, cannot stop with that quite superficial action of the will which manifests itself in a volition. The action is too isolated too intermittent and, in reality, too feeble, to account for so steady and uniform a state of character as human sinfulness. For these particular volitions, ending in particular outward actions, the mind instinctively seeks a common ground. For these innumerable volitions, occurring each by itself and separately, the mind instinctively seeks one single indivisible nature from which they spring. When the mind has got back to this point, it stops content, because it has reached a central point." This most important truth, then, is most powerfully presented by this law regarding issues. We are held responsible for much more than the voluntary element in life.
III THE FRUITLESSNESS OF THESE OUTCOMES OF NATURE SHOULD ALSO RECEIVE A PASSING NOTICE. The issues spoken of in this chapter are, with one exception, fruitless issues. In no plainer way could the fruitless issues of man"s evil nature be illustrated. If "out of the heart are the issues of life," out of man"s evil heart of unbelief are issues of fruitlessness and death.
IV FOR THESE UNCLEANNESSES, INVOLUNTARY AND SECRET, GOD PROVIDED A FITTING ATONEMENT. It is very noticeable that, while the reality of the guilt in these cases is made manifest, it is the smallest sacrifice, two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, which God requires. There is no exaggeration in dealing with the secret sins. Done in ignorance, they are not placed upon the same level with voluntary transgressions. At the same time, they are not winked at.
The sin offering is, of course, a type of Christ, our Atoning Sacrifice. It is on the ground of his atonement that we ask cleansing from secret faults (Psa_19:12) as well as from conscious transgressions. In truth, we are encouraged to come and to acknowledge that sin is a much larger matter than we are conscious of, that, in fact, it goes beyond all our conceptions, but at the same time is within the reach and grasp of our Lord"s atoning power. If he thus sets our secret sins in the light of his countenance, it is that he may have them entirely removed. Saul may have committed his sin: of persecution ignorantly in unbelief, but he needs to obtain mercy on account of them. (1Ti_2:13) Superficial views of sin would lead men to imagine that a sin done in ignorance is not a guilty thing. God thinks differently, because he looks into the heart and discerns the deep-seated source.
The burnt offering was to express the renewed sense of consecration which the cleansing brings. Out of defilement the soul passes, by Divine grace, into devotion.
The whole analysis of sin in these chapters (13-15) is profound and philosophical. In fact, portions of Scripture apparently repulsive become replete with wholesome truth when handled humbly and reverently. R.M.E.
HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDONALD Vers. 1-33. Uncleanness.
Had sin never entered, there had been no disease. Diseases are consequences of sin; their symptoms are therefore taken as emblems of it. So when our Lord miraculously "healed all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease," he evinced ability to remove all corresponding moral evil. The examples specified in the Law are typical or representative, and are such as have symptoms pronounced and visible.
I THOSE WHO HAD ISSUES IN THE FLESH WERE UNCLEAN.
1. Out of a pure heart are the issues of life. (see Pro_4:23)
(1) The blood, which is the life of the flesh, issuing from the heart, passes along the arteries to the extremities of the body, and carries nourishment to every part.
(2) This is a fine emblem of the heart of the "good treasure," whose influence upon any corporation, whether domestic, civic, or ecclesiastic, is life-giving. (Luk_6:45) But:
2. Out of a foul heart are the issues of death.
(1) If the blood is poisoned at its source, the poison is carried to the extremities, and will break out in ulcers and purulent issues.
(2) As these symptoms declare the boldness of the blood at the heart, which, if not purified, must terminate in mortification and death, so arc they appropriate emblems of moral impurity. (see Mat_12:34, 35 Mar_7:20-23 Jam_1:21)
(3) Or if the blood, which is the life, flow away from the body, that also is a fitting emblem of sin which is spiritual death. Therefore the woman who has an issue of blood is accounted unclean, as being in that condition in which the streams of the fountain of life are diverted from their uses of health and nourishment. Those who reject the life-giving efficacy of the gospel are morally dead, and must, if they remain so, rot in their iniquities. (see Lam_1:9, 17 Eze_36:17)
3. The Law enjoined the separation of the unclean.
(1) They must not come into the tabernacle. They are unfit to stand in God"s presence or to mingle with his people. They must not eat of the holy things. They are in no moral condition to hold fellowship with God and his Church. (see Psa_24:4 Mat_5:8)
(2) They have to remove outside the camp, like the leper. (see Num_5:2, Num_5:3) There they must remain until they are healed and cleansed.
(3) They transgress these bounds at their peril. They may be stoned to death by the people, or God himself may deal with them (verse 31; Exo_19:12, Exo_19:13). The profane under the gospel have a "much sorer punishment". (see Heb_10:26-31)
II THEY RENDERED UNCLEAN WHATEVER THEY TOUCHED.
1. This signified the contagion of sin.
(1) Persons were rendered unclean by contact with them (verses 7, 19, 26). We cannot have fellowship with sin and with God. (1Co_5:11 1Co_15:33 2Co_6:15-18 Eph_4:29 Jam_4:4)
(2) Things touched by them were also rendered unclean. The bed, the chair, the saddle, etc. (verses 4, 12, 20). These things may represent men in their properties or attributes, or in their usages, which are all damaged by the influence of sin. (1Th_4:4)
(3) Those who touched things rendered unclean by contact, also became unclean (verses 5, 6, 21-23). What a picture of the spreading power of evil example! How careful should we be to save ourselves from the untoward generation!
2. Ever, when cured they must be cleansed.
(1) Genuine repentance may cure sinful habits, but does not cancel guilt nor purify from sin. The utmost it could do is to prevent accumulations of guilt; the old score remains to be dealt with It does not touch the depravity of the heart. (see Mat_23:25)
(2) Time is given to test the cure. Where the disease was rooted, "seven days" of quarantine were required (see verses 13, 24, 28). The repentance of a moment after a life of evil habits may prove illusive.
(3) Where no disease existed, but uncleanness was contracted by contact, the quarantine was "until the even." The time here indicated was that of the evening sacrifice, which pointed significantly to the evening of the Jewish day, otherwise called the "end of the world" or age, viz. when Jesus "appeared to put away sin sacrifices by the sacrifice of himself," and remove ritual obligations.
3. Observe the ceremonies of cleansing.
(1) Some who were made clean by contact had to wash their hands. (verse 11; comp. Luk_11:38-41) This was when they were passive when the contact was inflicted. But if they neglected to rinse their hands, then they were as though they were active, so they had to wash their flesh and their clothes, and be unclean until the even. No special sacrifices were prescribed. They availed themselves of the daily sacrifice ever on the altar. So in our contact with the moral filth of this world, which is often unavoidable, we have the fountain of the house of David ever flowing, to enable us, almost without an interruption, to walk in the light. (see 2Co_7:1 1Jn_1:7; comp. Joh_13:10)
(2) The person healed of an issue had to bathe his flesh and wash his clothes on the seventh day, when he became "clean." So far he cleansed himself. The spirit of the Law was fulfilled thus far if he put away all his evil ways. (see Isa_1:16 Mat_15:20 Jam_4:8) He was clean so far as repentance could make him so, which was externally only, or before his fellow-men.
(3) He still needed the removal of sin from his soul. He had, therefore, now on the eighth day, to bring his sin offering and burnt offering, that with these the priest should "make an atonement for him before the Lord for his issue" (verses l4, 15, 29, 30). Christ is the Healer and Cleanser. (comp. Mat_8:16, Mat_8:17, with Isa_53:4, Isa_53:5) J.A.M.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-33. Personal purity.
It is not permissible to treat this chapter in any detail; to do so would he to act inconsistently with the very object of the legislation, viz, the encouragement of all delicacy of thought as well as propriety of conduct. But the fact that such a chapter as this (with others like it) is found in Scripture is suggestive and instructive. We gather
I THAT PERSONAL PURITY WAS AND IS A MATTER OF THE VERY GREATEST CONSEQUENCE IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. Into the relation of the sexes, and into the thoughts, words, and actions which belong to that relation, sin has introduced confusion and degradation. That which should have been the source of nothing but pure and holy joy has become the ground on which the very worst and most debasing consequences of sin are exhibited. Save, perhaps, in some phases of heathen idolatry, there is nothing in which man has shown so grievous a departure from the will of God, and so pitiful a spectacle of uttermost degradation, as in the realm of the sexual relations. It was the design of the Holy One of Israel to train for himself a people which should be free from the flagitious and abominable corruption into which the heathen nations had sunk. But he desired to go further than this: to promote and foster, by careful legislation, not only
(1) morality in its more general sense, but also
(2) decency of behaviour, and even
(3) delicacy of thought.
The Jews were taught and trained to put far away from them everything that was unclean. With this view it was made unlawful not only for those who had knowingly violated moral laws, but for those who had unwittingly offended the laws of ceremonial cleanness, to draw near to their God or to their fellows.
II THAT SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS THEREON ARE A MATTER OF HOLY EXPEDIENCY. It was needful that the children of Israel should receive particular and precise instructions, for they were to be separated from all surrounding nations in their customs, and so in their character notably in this matter of purity. Moreover, they were admitted to the near presence of God, and must therefore be clear of all impurity; death would be the penalty of defiling the tabernacle of God (verse 31). Special admonitions and special care are needed:
1. In the case of those who are placed in circumstances of peculiar delicacy.
2. In the case of those who are bound to be above all suspicion of any kind of indelicacy.
3. In the case of the young, who may be led into evil, the magnitude and consequences of which they cannot know. Parental warning, wisely and timely given, may save sons and daughters from much bodily mischief and spiritual suffering.
III THAT, IN THIS MATTER, WE MUST CONSIDER WHAT IS DUE, NOT ONLY TO OURSELVES, BUT TO OTHERS ALSO. All those details of Divine precept, by which every person and article anywise brought into contact with the unclean man or woman (verses 4-12, 20-24, 26-27) became unclean, bring out the important truth that impurity is an essentially communicable evil. It is so physically; "let sinners look to it." It is so spiritually. How guilty in the very last degree are those who drive a nefarious trade in corrupt literature! How shameful to put indecent thought into print to pollute the young! How demoralizing to the soul, how displeasing to God, how scrupulously to be avoided, the questionable conversation that borders on the indelicate and impure! (Eph_5:3, Eph_5:4, 12Col_3:8) C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v2 Because of his issue he is unclean.
Lev_15:2-33
Because of his issue he is unclean.
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Human nature unclean
1. We learn, in a very striking manner, the intense holiness of the Divine presence. Not a soil, not a stain, not a speck can be tolerated for a moment in that thrice-hallowed region.
2. Again, we learn that human nature is the ever-flowing fountain of uncleanness. It is hopelessly defiled and defiling.
3. Finally, we learn, afresh, the expiatory value of the blood of Christ, and the cleansing, sanctifying virtues of the precious Word of God. When we think of the unsullied purity of the sanctuary, and then reflect upon natures irremediable defilement, and ask the question, However can we enter and dwell there? the answer is found in the blood and water which flowed from the side of a crucified Christ--a Christ who gave up His life unto death for us, that we might live by Him. (C. H. Mackintosh.)
Secret uncleanness
All the uncleannesses here enumerated are such as were, for the most part, unknown except to the individual alone. They must, therefore, refer to sins of solitude and secrecy. The lesson is here taught that we may be great sinners without anybody else knowing anything about it. There may be a very correct exterior life, and yet a secret cherishing of pride, and lust, and unbelief, and a secret painting of the walls with imagery, as much unfitting us for the society of the pure and good as any open and outbreaking wickedness. The lively imagination of a gay, poetic mind is not less sinful when it scatters forth its luscious images, than the dull, brutal feelings of the stupid, ignorant boor. Even the quiet and involuntary exudations of natural feeling are often to be numbered with the uncleanest things. It is amazing how deep-seated the contaminations of sin are. A man may be truly penitent. He may be set to be a good servant of God; and yet, every now and then, he will find the disgusting uncleanness of sin quietly and unintentionally escaping from him, contaminating himself and those who come in contact with him or touch what he has touched. His whole nature is yet so full of remaining corruption that the least agitation causes it to trickle over. He lies down to sleep, and presently he finds it in his dreams. He puts forth his hand to welcome a friend, and the very touch sometimes awakes wrong echoes in the soul. He is accidentally thrown into the mere neighbourhood of sin, and the very atmosphere about him seems at times to be laden with excitations of impurity. His depravity cleaves to him like an old sore. Nor are these secret and involuntary outflowings of corruption mere trifles, unworthy of notice. They are here set forth under images and types among the most offensive and disgusting. They are too loathsome for public recital--too hideous even for the mind to dwell upon. God intends thus to signify His deep abhorrence of our inherent corruptions. He means to intimate to us that we have reason to be ashamed and confounded at the secret disorder which still works in us. Nay, He yet adds to these defilements a judicial sentence. They were uncleannesses which excluded from the sanctuary and everything holy. They brought condemnation with them. And some of them were so bad as to need atonement by blood. We need, therefore, to be on our guard against the beginnings of evil. It is indeed melancholy that we, as Christians, still have so much impurity cleaving to us. But still it is not without its good effects. We need something to keep us humble, to drive us continually to the throne of grace, and to keep us ever mindful of our dependence upon the mercy of God. It helps to soften us towards the failings of others, and to make us charitable in our judgments of offenders. It helps greatly to reconcile us to the idea of dying. It contributes to make our dying day a blessed day, because it will put an everlasting end to these vexations. Then we shall be delivered. from the body of this death. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
Purity required
In tins chapter the defilement of sin is the leading thought. Here again there can be no doubt that there was a sanitary element in the regulations. Cleanliness is next to godliness is not, as some suppose, a Bible sentence, but it is beyond all question a Bible sentiment. The first all-embracing law of the Mosaic economy is, Be holy. And the second is like unto it, Be clean: clean in person, clean in garments, clean in house, clean in camp, clean everywhere. Who can tell how much the world owes to these health laws of Moses? It is certainly a curious thing, writes one who is an authority on the subject, worthy the notice of every student of the progress of the human race, whether his standpoint be religious or purely scientific, that the moving camp in the wilderness was governed by as strict and perfect a sanitary code as any sanitary commission could now devise. But in the Mosaic institutes the purity of the soul was ever kept before the mind as the main thing to be desired and secured. Our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, was always the first thing; our bodies washed with pure water was the second (Heb_10:22); and throughout the book of the law these two have been by God so joined together that no candid mind can put them asunder. (J. M. Gibson, D. D.)
Cleanliness a religious dut
y:--We get here an illustration of that which so often occurs in the law of Moses, viz., that duties of the lowest, humblest order are urged on the people by the highest and noblest sanctions. Common work may be dignified by great motives. It will be regarded by a wise Christian man as a part of his duty which is by no means to be neglected, to maintain order and unsullied cleanliness in person and home. (C. Clemance, D. D.)
The secret flow of sin from the natural heart, typified in the running issue
We are here taught the disgusting constancy with which our original, deep-seated corruption will naturally discover itself. In all situations, towards all persons, at all seasons, this filthiness of the secret soul may be traced. In Lev_15:4 the man is represented as unclean when he lieth down to sleep, or even to rest at noon. Ah! yonder lies a sinner, and the very ground under him is accursed. His very pillow may shortly become a spear under his throat; just as Jonahs rest soon became a tempestuous sea. A friend comes to see him and gently wakes him, but touches his couch in so doing, and becomes thereby unclean (verse 5); for the man is all polluted. However amiable the friend you visit, yet, if still in his unhealed corruption, your intercourse with him spreads its baleful influence over you. You have insensibly been injured by the contact. Oh, how we should watch our souls in mingling with a world lying in wickedness l Oh, how holy, how marvellously strong in holiness was Jesus, who breathed this polluted air and remained as holy as when He came! If the man leave the spot, and another occupy it, that other has seated himself in the sinners place (verse 6), and the memory of his sin is not gone. He is in contact with a polluted thing. As when one of us now reads the details of a sinners career, and our mind rests thereon, we are involved in this sin. If a physician (verse 7) or an attendant touch the sick mans flesh, he is in contact with sin, and becomes polluted. This legal consequence of any actual contact with the defiled shows us, no doubt, the danger and hazard of even attempting to aid the polluted. It is at the risk of being ourselves involved in their sin. Therefore it must be watchfully done, not boldly and adventurously. You breathe an impure atmosphere: proceed with caution. If (verse 8) any even accidental touch occur--as if the diseased man spit or sneeze, so as anything from him reaches the bystander, pollution is spread. An accidental word, a casual expression, an unexpected look, may suggest sin; and if it does, forthwith wash it all away ere evening comes. Let not the sun go down upon thy wrath. Leave no stain for a moment upon thy conscience. When the man rides forth, lo! yonder is a sinner; and his saddle is polluted; and the mattress he spread on the floor of his tent for a temporary rest in his journey (verse 10) is so polluted that the attendant who lifts it is defiled. Oh! sad, sad estate of man! In going out or coming in, in the house or by the way, his inward fountain of sin flows on unceasingly, and the Holy One of Israel follows him with His eye to mark him as a sinner. Nay, if he put his hand forth (verse 11) to touch any one-to give him a friendly welcome, or aid him in any work, he conveys pollution, unless he have first rinsed his hands in water. The sinner, whose natural heart is still unhealed, cannot do even a kind act without sin--his only mode of doing so would be washing in clean water. And the vessels he uses (verse 12)must be broken or rinsed in water; even as the earth, on which the sinner has stood as his theatre for committing evil shall be broken in pieces by the fire of the last day (All these things shall be dissolved, 2Pe_3:11), the trial by water being already past. (A. A. Bonar.)
Atonement required for secret sins
A full atonement is required for our inward, secret sins, as much as for open and flagrant sins. The sinful vision that our fancy spread out before us for a moment must be washed away by blood. The tendency which our soul felt to sympathise in that act of resentment or revenge must be washed away by blood. The hour, or minutes, we spent in brooding over our supposed hard lot must be redeemed by blood. The selfish wish we cherished for special prosperity in some undertaking that was to reflect its credit on us only, is to be washed away by blood. The proud aspiration, the sensual impulse, the world-loving eye or soul cast on earths glories, must be washed away by blood. The darkness, ignorance, suspicion, and misconception we entertain toward God and His salvation, retest be washed in blood. Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part (hidden region of the soul) Thou shalt make me to know wisdom (Psa_51:6). (A. A. Bonar.)
Impurity a contagious evil
All those details of Divine precept, by which every person and article anywise brought into contact with the unclean man or woman became unclean, bring out the truth that impurity is an essentially communicable evil. It is so physically; let sinners look to it. It is so spiritually. How guilty in the very last degree are those who drive a nefarious trade in corrupt literature! How shameful to put indecent thought into print to pollute the young! How demoralising to the soul, how displeasing to God, how scrupulously to be avoided, the questionable conversation that borders on the indelicate and impure! (see Eph_5:3-4; Eph_5:12; Col_3:8). (W. Clarkson.)
Beware of contact with sinful persons
All this mystically teaches us to beware of courting or choosing the conversation of those that have received any tincture of vice, and not to contract acquaintance with any persons who we have reason to believe are not on good terms with God. There is such a venomous contagion in vice and immorality that familiarity with sinners does, of itself, make a man an associate in their practices: so saith the son of Sirach (Sir_13:1), and thus the apostle commands (1Ti_5:22). (Biblioth. Bibl.)
Plain speaking on the subject of purity
That plain speaking and plain dealing, such as we find here, was necessary, is amply proved by the history of the ancient world, and of the modern world too. The Bible is the only book that has exercised any considerable effect in keeping men and women pure. There are many books, where everything offensive to the ear is studiously avoided, which nevertheless are very poison to the soul. In the Bible, on the other hand, while there is not a little that is offensive to the ear, there is absolutely nothing that is poisonous to the spirit, unless the spirit has been poisoned already; for we must remember that while to the pure all things are pure, unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is m thing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled. There is absolutely nothing in the entire Bible that will not exert a holy and purifying influence on those who read it in the right spirit. And as a historical fact, such has been the result among those who have made these Scriptures their companion and counsellor. The Jews alone among the nations of antiquity had even the conception of purity as we understand it now. Consider for a moment whence we derive those exalted notions of purity which are widely prevalent in modern society, especially among Christian people. Even the purest and the best of Greek philosophers, those who in other respects have come nearest to Bible ethics, are wofully behind in regard to personal purity of heart and life, some of them tolerating and others approving that which enlightened Christian sentiment utterly condemns. Let any one fairly investigate the genesis and evolution of our modern ideas of chastity and purity and he will find that they are traceable chiefly to the Hebrew Scriptures as their source. And so the remarkable fact will present itself that to these very Scriptures, and largely to those parts of them which the corrupt imagination of certain cavillers finds an indecency which is all its own, we owe that very sentiment of delicacy which makes it impossible for us to read them aloud in public or in the family. (J. M. Gibson, D. D.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 INASMUCH as the law concerning defilement from issues is…
OF THE UNCLEANNESS OF ISSUES
Lev_15:1-33
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INASMUCH as the law concerning defilement from issues is presupposed and referred to in that concerning the defilement of child bearing, in chapter 12, it will be well to consider this before the latter. For this order there is the more reason, because, as will appear, although the two sections are separated, in the present arrangement of the book, by the law concerning defilement by leprosy (chapters 13, 14), they both refer to the same general topic, and are based upon the same moral conceptions.
The arrangement of the law in chapter 15 is very simple. Lev_15:2-18 deal with the cases of ceremonial defilement by issues in men; Lev_15:19-30, with analogous cases in women. The principle in both classes is one and the same; the issue, whether normal or abnormal, rendered the person affected unclean; only, when abnormal, the defilement was regarded as more serious than in other cases, not only in a physical, but also in a ceremonial and legal aspect. In all such cases, in addition to the washing with water which was always required, it was commanded that on the eighth day from the time of the cessation of the issue, the person who had been so affected should come before the priest and present for his cleansing a sin offering and a burnt offering.
What now is the principle which underlies these regulations?
In seeking the answer to this question, we at once note the suggestive fact that this law concerning issues takes cognisance only of such as are connected with the sexual organisation. All others, however, in themselves, from a merely physical point of view, equally unwholesome or loathsome, are outside the purview of the Mosaic code. They do not render the person affected, according to the law, ceremonially unclean. It is therefore evident that the lawgiver must have had before him something other than merely the physical peculiarities of these defilements, and that, for the true meaning of this part of the law, we must look deeper than the surface. It should also be observed here that this characteristic of the law just mentioned, places the law of issues under the same general category with the law (chapter 12) concerning the uncleanness of child bearing, as indeed the latter itself intimates. {Lev_12:2} The question thus arises: Why are these particular cases, and such as these only, regarded as ceremonially defiling?
To see the reason of this, we must recur to facts which have already come before us. When our first parents sinned, death was denounced against them as the penalty of their sin. Such had been the threat: "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt die." The death denounced indeed affected the whole being, the spiritual as well as the physical nature of man; but it comprehended the death of the body, which thus became, what it still is, the most impressive manifestation of the presence of sin in every person who dies. Hence, as we have seen, the law kept this connection between sin and death steadily before the mind, in that it constantly applied the principle that the dead defiles. Not only so, but, for this reason, such things as tended to bring death were also reckoned unclean; and thus the regulations of the law concerning clean and unclean meats, while strictly hygienic in character, were yet grounded in this profound ethical fact of the connection between sin and death; had man not sinned, nothing in the world had been able to bring in death, and all things had been clean. For the same reason, again, leprosy, as exemplifying in a vivid and terrible way disease as a progressive death, a living manifestation of the presence of the curse of God, and therefore of the presence of sin, a type of all disease, was regarded as involving ceremonial defilement and therefore as requiring sacrificial cleansing.
But in the curse denounced upon our first parents was yet more. It was specially taught that the curse should affect the generative power of the race. For we read: {Gen_3:16} "Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children." Whatever these words may precisely mean, it is plain that they are intended to teach that, because of sin, the curse of God fell in some mysterious way upon the sexual organisation. And although the woman only is specifically mentioned, as being "first in the transgression," that the curse fell also upon the same part of mans nature is plain from the words in Gen_5:3, where the long mortuary record of the antediluvians is introduced by the profoundly significant statement that Adam began the long line, with its inheritance of death, by begetting a son "in his own likeness, after his image." Fallen himself under the curse of death, physical and spiritual, he therewith lost the capacity to beget a creature like himself in his original state, in the image of God, and could only be the means of bringing into the world a creature who was an inheritor of physical weakness and spiritual and bodily death.
In the light of this ancient record, which must have been before the mind of the Hebrew lawgiver, we can now see why the law concerning unclean issues should have had special relation to that part of mans physical organisation which has to do with the propagation of the race. Just as death defiled, because it was a visible representation of the presence of the curse of God, and thus of sin, as the ground of the curse, even so was it with all the issues specified in this law. They were regarded as making a man unclean, because they were manifestations of the curse in a part of mans nature which, according to the Word of God, sin has specially affected. For this reason they fell under the same law as death. They separated the person thus affected from the congregation, and excluded him from the public worship of a holy God, as making him "unclean."
It is impossible now to miss the spiritual meaning of these laws concerning issues of this class. In that these alone, out of many others, which from a merely physical point of view are equally offensive, were taken under the cognisance of this law, the fact was thereby symbolically emphasised that the fountain of life in man is defiled. To be a sinner were bad enough, if it only involved the voluntary and habitual practice of sin. But this law of issues testifies to us, even now, that, as God sees mans case, it is far worse than this. The evil of sin is so deeply seated that it could lie no deeper. The curse has in such manner fallen on our being, as that in man and woman the powers and faculties which concern the propagation of their kind have fallen under the blight. All that any son of Adam can now do is to beget a son in his own physical and moral image, an heir of death, and by nature unclean and unholy. Sufficiently distasteful this truth is in all ages; but in none perhaps ever more so than our own, in which it has become a fundamental postulate of much popular theology, and of popular politics as well, that man is naturally not bad, but good, and, on the whole, is doing as well as under the law of evolution, and considering his environment, can reasonably be expected. The spiritual principle which underlies the law concerning defilement by issues, as also that concerning the uncleanness of child bearing, assumes the exact opposite.
It is indeed true that similar causes of ceremonial uncleanness have been recognised in ancient and in modern times among many other peoples. But this is no objection to the truth of the interpretation of the Mosaic law here given. For in so far as there is genuine agreement, the fact may rather confirm than weaken the argument for this view of the case, as showing that there is an ineradicable instinct in the heart of man which connects all that directly or indirectly has to do with the continuance of our race, in a peculiar degree, with the ideas of uncleanness and shame. And, on the other hand, the differences in such cases from the Mosaic law show us just what we should expect, -a degree of moral confusion and a deadening of the moral sense among the heathen nations, which is most significant. As has been justly remarked, the Hindoo has one law on this subject for the Brahman, another for others; the outcast for some deadly sin, often of a purely frivolous nature, and a newborn child, are reckoned equally unclean. Or, -to take the case of a people contemporary with the Hebrews, -among the ancient Chaldeans, while these same issues were accounted ceremonially defiling, as in the law of Moses, with these were also reckoned in the same category, as unclean, whatsoever was separated from the body, even to the cuttings of the hair and the parings of the nails. Evidently, we thus have here, not likeness, but a profound and most suggestive moral contrast between the Chaldean and the Hebrew law. Of the profound ethical truth which vitalises and gives deep significance to the law of Moses, we find no trace in the other system. And it is no wonder if, indeed, the one law is, as declared, a revelation from the holy God, and the other the work of sinful and sin blinded man.
It is another moral lesson which is brought before us in these laws that, as God looks at the matter, sin pertains not only to action, but also to being. Not only actions, from which we can abstain, but operations of nature which we cannot help, alike defile; defile in such a manner and degree as to require, even as voluntary acts of sin, the cleansing of water, and the expiatory blood of a sin offering. One could not avoid many of the defilements mentioned in this chapter, but that made no difference; he was unclean. For the lesser grades of uncleanness it sufficed that one be purified by washing with water; and a sin offering was only required when this purification had been neglected; but in all cases where the defilement assumed its extreme form, the sin offering and the burnt offering must be brought, and be offered for the unclean person by the priest. So is it, we are taught, with that sin of nature which these cases symbolised; we cannot help it, and yet the washing of regeneration and the cleansing of the blood of Christ is required for its removal. Very impressive in its teaching now becomes the miracle in which our Lord healed the poor woman afflicted with the issue of blood, {Mar_5:25-34} for which she had vainly sought cure. It was a case like that covered by the law in Lev_15:25-27; and he who will read and consider the provisions of that law will understand, as otherwise he could not, how great her trial and how heavy her burden must have been. He will wonder also, as never before, at the boldness of her faith, who, although, according to the law, her touch should defile the Lord, yet ventured to believe that not only should this not be so, but that the healing power which went forth from Him should neutralise the defilement, and carry healing virtue to the very centre of her life. Thus, if other miracles represent our Lord as meeting the evil of sin in its various manifestations in action, this miracle represents His healing power as reaching to the very source and fountain of life, where it is needed no less.
The law concerning the removal of these defilements, after all that has preceded, will admit only of one interpretation. The washing of water is the uniform symbol of the cleansing of the soul from pollution by the power of the Holy Ghost; the sacrifices point to the sacrifice of Christ, in its twofold aspect as burnt offering and sin offering, as required by and availing for the removal of the sinful defilement which, in the mind of God, attaches even to that in human nature which is not under the control of the will. At the same time, whereas in all these cases the sin offering prescribed is the smallest known to the law, it is symbolised, in full accord with the teaching of conscience, that the gravity of the defilement, where there has not been the active concurrence of the will, is less than where the will has seconded nature. In all cases of prolonged defilement from these sources, it was required that the affected person should still be regarded as unclean for seven days after the cessation of the infirmity, and on the eighth day came the sacrificial cleansing. The significance of the seven as the covenant number, the number also wherein was completed the old creation, has been already before us: that of "the eighth" will best be considered in connection with the provisions of chapter 12, to which we next turn our attention.
The law of this chapter has a formal closing, in which are used these words (Lev_15:31): "Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile My tabernacle that is in the midst of them."
Of which the natural meaning is this, that the defilements mentioned, as conspicuous signs of mans fallen condition, were so offensive before a holy God, as apart from these purifications to have called down the judgment of death on those in whom they were found. In these words lies also the deeper spiritual thought-if we have rightly apprehended the symbolic import of these regulations-that not only, as in former cases mentioned under the law of offerings, do voluntary acts of sin separate from God and if unatoned for call down His judgment, but that even our infirmities and the involuntary motions of sin in our nature have the same effect, and, apart from the cleansing of the Holy Spirit and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, ensure the final judgment of death.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Secret Physical Impurities
Secret Physical Impurities
SUGGESTIVE READINGS
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Secret impurities, whether of men or women, are carefully discriminated here as resulting from guilty sexual intercourse, and as the effect of natural infirmity. God has stern thoughts for the licentious, He brands him as polluted and polluting, and interdicts from all privileges those who have become basely defiled.
Yet even where no moral vileness attaches to the uncleanness, where the impurity is the consequence of physical weakness and natural processes, God enforces exclusion. For although the Lord is very pitiful to our weaknesses, “knows our frame, and remembers that we are dust,” commiserates our secret maladies, and “breaks not the bruised reed,” nevertheless, only the clean can be allowed free enjoyment of social and spiritual favours within the camp and congregation of His “holy nation.”
Considering even the sanitary value of these prohibitions and laws we discern God’s wisdom and benignity, for they placed the ban on self-destroying indulgences and arrested contamination of loathsome diseases. But as a witness to the necessity of moral and spiritual purity in the person and habits of God’s people these restrictions are full of significance. “Cleanse thou me from secret faults.”
HOMILETIC HINTS
I. The distressing vileness of fallen human nature. An ever-flowing stream of uncleanness. While unsanctified by grace, not only is it true concerning the “vile body” that “in us, that is in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing,” but all its habits and infirmities are corrupt and corrupting. What occasion is left for “glorying in the flesh”? Let those who vaunt the dignity of human nature see its revolting side in this chapter. Then “every mouth shall be stopped, and all become guilty before God.”
II. The stainless sanctity required in God’s presence. Any soil, stain, or mark of impurity must close the unclean from coming near where He dwells. Jehovah had associated Himself with this people, was in their midst; and as He could not bear defilement He insists on the most rigorous sanctity, in their persons, their privacy, their homes, their worship. It carries its appeal to us that we “perfect holiness in the fear of God.” “Wash you, make you clean, put away your evil from before mine eyes.”
III. The bounteous provisions made for the sinner’s cleansing. The redeeming blood and purifying water are again available atonement through Christ, and sanctification through the Spirit and the Word; these are efficacious for even vilest stains and most loathsome impurities.
Thus, while “in the body,” whose every habit and infirmity affirms its natural corruptness, we can hope for renewing grace through the redemption and washing which the gospel offers to all who will “wash and be clean.”
“We have the blood of Christ!” said Schliermacher, and so passed away to glory.
NOTES
i. Indecencies both shock a virtuous mind, and are signally offensive to Divine Holiness.
ii. The human frame, formed for noble uses, may be most basely degraded by forbidden indulgences
iii. Low passions, if allowed sway, inflict miseries on others, entailing them in the humiliation of communicated uncleanness.
iv. Hidden physical impurities are as minutely marked by the Omniscient Eye as are the flagrant leprous taints.
v. A more emphatic loathing is noticeable in God’s denunciation of these secret sexual uncleannesses than of any other forms of human defilement.
vi. Our Lord’s healing of the woman’s secret malady (Mar_5:25; Mar_5:27) may be allowed to denote the Source of help to all who ask deliverance from corrupting weaknesses and vicious tendencies.
vii. Infinite pity has provided expiation for, and cleansing from, even our basest sins, equally as for our natural infirmities.
SECTIONAL HOMILIES
Topic: THE ODIOUSNESS OF PERSONAL IMPURITY (Lev_15:1-14; Lev_15:19-27)
These regulations, which at first sight may appear indelicate and unnecessary, were “holy, just and true.” Among the licentious idolatrous Egyptians Israel was to become a model for purity; no secret sin of any kind tolerated among them. Laws necessary to the physical and moral well being of the whole nation ought not to be considered offensive. A vast multitude was to be conducted through the wilderness with a crowded encampment of tents. Nothing, in such a case, would keep them pure and make social life tolerable but such rigid legislation as the Mosaic regulations enjoined. These regulations:
I. ASSERTED THE NEED OF SCRUPULOUS PERSONAL PURITY.
Not only were the people to be on their guard against diseases such as leprosy, which revealed itself by outward manifestations, but against secret impurities which might be known only to the persons suffering therefrom. Thus the encampment of the wilderness would be kept from degenerating into a hotbed of impurity and disease. Into whatever flagrant sins the Jews as a nation fell, they never became notorious for impurity or immorality, and, to this day, the ranks of the licentious are conspicuously free from members of the family of Abraham. The gospel is not less rigid in its demands for personal purity; indeed, it probes the moral nature of man more deeply, and demands purity of thought and desire as well as of word and deed. Unaccomplished vicious purposes are regarded as performed. The gospel condemns every species of impurity that would defile the body, and teaches higher morality than the ceremonial law ever reached.
II. SUGGESTED THE NEED OF COMPLETE MORAL SPOTLESSNESS.
Having to repair to the priest; and, when cleansed, to appear before the Lord, would naturally suggest to the mind the necessity of absolute purity of heart in the service of Jehovah. He who demanded the complete removal of all pollution from the physical frame, must require truth and purity in the human heart. All sin is a diseased and wasteful outflowing of the vitality of the soul. As none were too impure to apply to the priest, no case so desperate but might be cured, so the vilest of the vile may repair to our Great High Priest, who is able and willing to save to the uttermost of human need, in all the world, through all time.—F. W. B.
Topic: THE CONSEQUENCES OF PERSONAL IMPURITY (Lev_15:13-18; Lev_15:28-33)
The laws of nature cannot be set aside, or perverted, without the infliction of penalties upon the delinquent. This world is a place, though not the place of punishment for sin. Impurity of life entails weakness, suffering, shame; disgrace and deprivation were the penalty borne by those ceremonially defiled, teaching us—
I. THAT PERSONAL IMPURITY NATURALLY ENTAILS DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES.
The body becomes deteriorated, the stamina reduced, when vices of a secret character work in the dark at the basis of life. The mind becomes enfeebled, the soul debased. The sensualist and impure carry the brand of their iniquity upon their countenance, signs of their immoral character in their gait. Personal impurity bars the gate to heaven! for there nothing that defileth or worketh abomination can enter. Its consequences extend to others; for morally unclean persons carry contamination wherever they go, as the law declared the unclean did in the cases before us. The Jews were taught that the slightest touch conveyed defilement; so, sinful influences, however apparently slight, vitiate and convey moral infection. Blessed be God we are taught—
II. THAT THE CONSEQUENCES OF PERSONAL IMPURITY MAY BE ARRESTED AND REMOVED.
Persons and things defiled by contact with the unclean could be cleansed by being bathed in water, and the presentation of two clean live birds for an atonement. Thus, not only the unclean persons could obtain cleansing, but the entail of their corrupt influences could be stayed. The stains of guilt, the course of sin, can only be arrested and removed by the intervention of the Lord. The consequences of sin in our world can only be counteracted by the sanctifying influences of the Holy Ghost, and the sacrificial life of the spotless Lamb of God.
Note 1: The Laws respecting uncleanness could not have been invented by man; for human nature does not voluntarily inflict penalties upon itself, does not bring its vices into the light of day, and arraign them at the bar of public opinion; for, “men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.”
Note 2: Instead of sin flowing secretly from our words and deeds, corrupting ourselves, and contaminating others, “light” is to shine from us, pure, cheerful, penetrating, divine. Thus shall our lives redound to the glory of God, and contribute towards the moral regeneration of our race.—F. W. B.
OUTLINES ON VERSES OF CHAPTER 15
Lev_15:2.—Theme: THE SECRET FLOW OF SIN. “When any man hath a running issue out of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean.”
Jehovah demands purity of body, as well as of mind and heart, in those who profess to be His people, and draw near to Him in sacred worship. Our bodies, not to be despised or neglected, but kept pure, as the handiwork of God, and as the dwelling-place of the human soul. The uncleanness here spoken of, probably the outcome of secret wantonness, or open licentiousness, or self-pollution. Secret sins, witnessed by no one but ourselves and God, vitiate the springs of life, and waste the substance of which our bodies are composed. Thus the Moral Governor of the universe has set His inevitable stigma upon all wrong-doing. By this statute we have suggested—
I. THAT SIN IS AN IMMORAL ISSUE FROM WITHIN MAN. Not a complexion, that may easily be changed; not an excrescence, that clings to the surface only; but a radical defilement issuing from the heart, which is the fountain of life. How disgusting and injurious sin is! How inveterate its hold upon our nature! Flowing from within, it often escapes detection, and defies all merely human remedies for its removal. “In us, that is in our flesh, there dwelleth no good thing;” when we would do good evil is present with us. Sin is not to be got rid of by change of scenery or society. Those who retreat from the world—hermits, monks, nuns, etc.—carry their evil propensities with them, and the secret flow of sin does not cease. However moral the outward life may be, out of the heart will flow secret pride, unbelief, lust, evil thoughts, which defile the soul and burden the conscience with guilt.
II. THAT SIN THUS POLLUTES EVERY THING IT COMES IN CONTACT WITH. Whatever the persons mentioned in this chapter touched became unclean; showing how exceedingly contagious the defilement was. So sin pollutes and transmits itself. Like a serpent, its trail is left wherever it goes. The beauty of the world, its bounties and pleasures, have been distorted and abused by the contaminating touch of sin. Let us pray to be kept from secret sins. Suggestions to evil come up the corridors of memory, flash from pictures in the chambers of imagination. Indulgence in secret impure desires will induce and excite the flow of moral evil from the heart, wasting the powers of the soul, corrupting every circle that it touches. Sin indisposes and incapacitates men for pure society and holy service. If not stayed, consequence death. Blessed be God! sin has been atoned for, may be removed; death has been abolished, life and immortality brought to light by the gospel.—F. W. B.
Lev_15:13.—Theme: THE RADICAL CURE OF SIN. “And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his issue,” etc.
Though the uncleanness here mentioned was so deeply rooted and virulent, yet it was curable; the persons cured were restored to their former positions in society, and declared whole in the presence of the Lord. We learn here—
I. THAT SIN CAN BE REMOVED ONLY THROUGH ATONEMENT. “The priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord.” The water and the blood that flowed seem to typify the fountain opened upon the cross in the Saviour’s side. In every instance under the law where sin was to be forgiven some pure life had to be offered as an atonement, the innocent suffered as a substitute for the guilty. Thus the roots and principles of the gospel of Christ are found in the economy of Moses.
II. THAT THE REMOVAL OF SIN CAN ONLY BE COMPLETED BY SANCTIFICATION. The ablutions of the candidate for cleansing indicated that only by persistence in the means of grace, and thoroughness of dedication to the conditions of mercy, can we become sanctified. At eventide the cleansed person became clean; so, when life’s day is over, and the shadows of death close upon the believer, the work of sanctification, which has progressed through the whole period of probation, will become complete; the “vile body” will be laid aside, the emancipated and immaculate spirit be “present with the Lord.”
Obviously, contaminating influences may be communicated unexpectedly and unintentionally. What need to pray, as David did (Psalms 51), “Wash me throughly,” etc. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews urged them to seek to have their “bodies washed with pure water, and their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.” Christ can arrest the flow of sinful influences, as He stayed the issue of the poor sufferer, recorded Mar_5:29. The gospel dispenses with the burdensome ceremonials of the Law; but, all they pointed to is preserved and fulfilled, for “the blood of Jesus Christ clear Beth from all sin.”—F. W. B.
ILLUSTRATIVE ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 15
SECRESY
“Go to your own bosom
Knock there: and ask your heart what it doth know.” SHAKESPEARE.
SELF MASTERY
“I will be lord over myself. No one who cannot master himself is worthy to rule.”—GOETHE.
“A little fire is quickly trodden out:
Which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench.”
—Henry VI.
PASSIONS
“The passions may be humoured till they become our master, as a horse may be pampered till he gets the better of his rider; but early discipline will prevent mutiny and keep the helm in the hands of reason.”
—CUMBERLAND.
“His soul, like bark with rudder lost,
On passions’ changeful tide was tost;
Nor vice, nor virtue, had the power
Beyond the impression of the hour;
And O! when passion rules, how rare
The hour that falls to Virtue’s share!”
—SCOTT.
“No man’s body is as strong as his appetite: but heaven has corrected the boundlessness of his voluptuous desires by stinting his strength and contracting his capacities.”—TILLOTSON.
“What profits us that we from Heaven derive
A soul immortal; and with looks erect
Survey the stars; if, like the brutal kind,
We follow where our passions lead the way?”
—CLAUDIAN.
VICE
“Vice stings us even in our pleasures; but virtue consoles us even in our pains”—COLTON
“Why is there no man who confesses his vices? It is because he has not yet laid them aside. It is a waking man only who can tell his dreams.”—SENECA.
“Men only feel the smart, but not the vice.”
—POPE.
VIRTUE
“Virtue that transgresses, is but patched with sin;
But sin that amends, is but patched with virtue.”—SHAKESPEARE, Twelfth Night, 1, 3.
“Wisdom and virtue require a tutor; though we can easily learn to be vicious without a master.”—SENECA.
“God sure esteems the growth and completing of one virtuous person more than the restraint of ten vicious.”—MILTON.
“The soul’s calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy,
Is virtue’s prize.”—Essay on Man, POPE.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Uncleanness connected with Sexual Discharges
Uncleanness connected with Sexual Discharges
The subject of this chapter is related to that of Leviticus 12 : see intro. there. Here three natural (Lev_15:16-17, Lev_15:18, Lev_15:19-24) and two abnormal (Lev_15:1-15, Lev_15:25-30) conditions are dealt with. Though not in themselves sinful, they render the person ceremonially unclean, and the enactments with respect to them would tend to purity of morals, being a reminder that all uncleanness is hateful to God, and that He is to be glorified in our bodies as well as in our spirits.
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8. This case is provided for, as spitting upon a person was, and still is, a common expression of contempt among Orientals.
12. See on Lev_11:33.
13. Is cleansed] i.e. physically. Shall be clean] i.e. ceremonially.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 5. Concerning Issues: Man’s Weakness and Defilement
5. Concerning Issues: Man’s Weakness and Defilement
CHAPTER 15
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1. The uncleanness of a man (Lev 15:1-18)
2. The uncleanness of a woman (Lev 15:19-33)
The whole chapter shows the deplorable physical condition into which man has been plunged by sin. The issues mentioned were therefore an evidence of the presence of sin in man’s nature with the curse upon it, and constitutes man and woman unclean in the sight of God. “Not only actions, from which we can abstain, but operations of nature which we cannot help, alike defile; defile in such a manner and degree as to require, even as voluntary acts of sin, the cleansing of water and the expiatory blood of a sin offering. One could not avoid many of the defilements mentioned in this chapter, but that made no difference; he was unclean.” Fallen human nature in its weakness and defilement is taught, and that this human nature is impure and polluting even in its secret workings. The blood and the water cover all this. It must be noticed that the water and the different application of water is constantly mentioned throughout this chapter. The water always typifies the Word by which our way is to be cleansed.
“Again, we learn that human nature is the ever-flowing fountain of uncleanness. It is hopelessly defiled; and not only defiled, but defiling. Awake or asleep, sitting, standing, or lying, nature is defiled and defiling: its very touch conveys pollution. This is a deeply humbling lesson for proud humanity; but thus it is. The book of Leviticus holds up a faithful mirror to nature: it leaves ‘flesh’ nothing to glory in. Men may boast of their refinement, their moral sense, their dignity: let them study the third book of Moses, and there they will see what it is all really worth in God’s estimation” (C.H. Mackintosh).
The case of the woman with an issue of blood (Mat 9:18-26) is stated in verses 25-27. How great must have been her trial and her sorrow during the twelve years of her uncleanness. Still greater was her faith and the testimony she bore to the holy Person of our Lord. All what came in touch with such an unclean person became unclean. She believed both that her touch could not make Christ unclean, for He is holy, and that His power could heal her.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 In the Case of Men
In the Case of Men
v. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying,
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v. 2. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When any man hath a running issue out of his flesh, either a catarrhal affection of the urethra or a latent flowing of semen with a continuous discharge, because of his issue he is unclean, Levitically impure.
v. 3. And this shall be his uncleanness in his issue: whether his flesh run with his issue, or his flesh be stopped from his issue, that is, whether the matter flows without stopping, or whether it is sometimes temporarily retained, it is his uncleanness.
v. 4. Every bed whereon he lieth that hath the issue is unclean; and everything, every piece of furniture, whereon he sitteth shall be unclean.
v. 5. And whosoever toucheth his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
v. 6. And he that sitteth on anything whereon he sat that hath the issue shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
v. 7. And he that toucheth the flesh, that is, the body,of him that hath the issue shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
v. 8. And if he that hath the issue spit upon him that is clean, as might inadvertently happen,then he (the clean person)shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
v. 9. And what saddle soever, wagon or seat of a wagon,he rideth upon that hath the issue shall be unclean.
v. 10. And whosoever toucheth anything that was under him, any garment, saddle, or vessel upon which the unclean person lay or sat, shall be unclean until the even; and he that beareth any of those things shall wash his clothes, And bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
v. 11. And whomsoever he toucheth that hath the issue, and hath not rinsed his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. The washing of the hands prevented the communication of the uncleanness on the part of the person suffering with the issue, for the uncleanness was of a symbolical character.
v. 12. And the vessel of earth that he toucheth which hath the issue shall be broken; and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water.
v. 13. And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his issue, when the flow has stopped, then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, to be sure that a recurrence of the trouble was excluded, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh, his body, in running water, and shall be clean.
v. 14. And on the eighth day he shall take to him two turtle-doves or two young pigeons, offerings of the humblest kind indeed, but serving just the same for the purpose of upholding the relation between God and the sinner, and come before the Lord unto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, and give them unto the priest;
v. 15. and the priest shall offer them, the one for a sin-offering and the other for a burnt offering. And the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord for his issue. On account of the uncleanness there had existed an estrangement between God and the afflicted person, and this was now removed by the sacrifice of faith.
v. 16. And if any man’s seed of copulation go out from him, inadvertently, during sleep, then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the even.
v. 17. And every garment and every skin whereon is the seed of copulation shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the even. The law seems to refer to involuntary emissions only, but its provisions naturally would serve to check the terrible sin of self-pollution.
v. 18. The woman also with whom man shall lie, in the chief relation peculiar to the marital estate, with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even. This law must have acted as a very effective check upon mere sensual passions. Cf Exo 19:15; 1Sa 21:5-6; 2Sa 11:4. "This defilement is connected with the general sinful condition of man, and did not pertain to his original state. "
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 8, 10 comes out of his body
comes out of his body
This refers to the man's private parts. (See: Euphemism)
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he becomes unclean
The person whom other people may not touch is spoken of as if he were physically unclean. (See: Metaphor)
it is unclean
"his body is unclean" or "he is unclean"
translationWords
Yahweh
Moses
Aaron
Israel
clean
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1–2 15:1-33 The principle of normal and abnormal and the…
15:1-33 The principle of normal and abnormal and the created order again aids the interpretation of these regulations (see “Clean, Unclean, and Holy” Theme Note). Bodily discharges, such as infections (see study note on 13:1-46), were not “normal” because they weakened the vitality of the person, so the person was not seen as whole. Whether male (15:1-18) or female (15:19-33), such a person became unclean.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.