Leviticus 15:1-33 - Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

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Bible Comments

Leviticus 15:2. Running issue. The holy scriptures speak modestly of obscene things. It is a kind of gonorrhea, occasioned by whoredom, or by lascivious habits. How strikingly is the providence of God displayed in deterring the wicked from profligacy, by this most dreadful disease of rottenness in the bones: and if he so afflict the body, what punishment is that which awaits the soul.

Leviticus 15:16. This accident happening to a man in a dream, whether sleeping alone or with his wife, rendered him totally unclean, because occurrences of this kind seldom happen to one whose heart is habitually right with God.

Leviticus 15:24. If a man lie with her at all, either by coition or otherwise, he shall be unclean seven days. If it were a gross case, so as to bring him before the magistrates, he was to be utterly cut off from the congregation. See on Exodus 12:15; Leviticus 20:18. The wisdom and equity of this law is founded on the purity of the divine nature, which abhors the offensive uncleanness of mankind. Also on the guard to which it prompts us, for though the beasts are but slightly affected with menses, they shun from instinct this impurity. It is besides injurious to health, conveying to the progeny those hereditary diseases which the infirmity alluded to is designed to carry off.

Leviticus 15:27. Whosoever toucheth shall be unclean. The ritual law was indeed a yoke which the Jews could not bear. What a cloud of persons and of things made a man unclean! The rabbins in many instances restricted the prohibitory touch to holy vessels; yet the burden was but slightly relieved. In Jerusalem, the population being dense, only a small proportion of the people could legally be accounted clean.

Leviticus 15:31. Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel. The Samaritan and Septuagint copies read, Thus shall you make the children of Israel cautious concerning their uncleanness, that they die not.

REFLECTIONS.

How dreadful is the state of the corrupt and guilty world! How bitter and impure the streams of original sin, when modesty is lost, and religion insulted. The Lord afflicts the body with disease, the conscience with terror, and enlarges the jaws of hell to receive its prey. It was death for man or woman, so polluted, to enter the congregation of the Lord. Their eyes and looks are full of sin, and all around them is impure. Unless the body of a sinful leper was healed, he could never more enter the congregation of the Lord. The gospel is not less rigorous than the law; for whoremongers and adulterers God will judge, and they shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven.

At the sixteenth verse, all men, and youth in particular, have instruction. No plea arising from passion or dream is allowed, for God has made no man under a necessity of sinning. The laws of temperance will preserve the body in purity, and religion will sanctify the soul. Young men, says the blessed Polycarp, keep your flesh as the temple of God. War a good warfare, keep the heart with all diligence, and God will keep you from falling. Having first given your affections, next present your bodies to him a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which is your reasonable service. Endeavour to live in childlike innocence, in purity of thought, and the God of purity will make you his habitation for ever.

Let us then be stimulated to all holiness of body and mind, by a sight of the awful situation of the wicked. See the licentious youth of our age, early initiated into vice, with a sallow, pallid countenance, feeble in their walk, emaciated in their frame, and gloomy in their looks. Almost every disease incident to the human body is superinduced. They are old and worn-out men in the flower of their age; a terror to themselves, and an affliction to their friends. Oh what we owe to divine wisdom! Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand are riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

Related Commentaries of Leviticus 15:1

Leviticus 15:1-33

1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying,

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.

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, it is his uncleanness.

4 Every bed, whereon he lieth that hath the issue, is unclean: and every thing,a whereon he sitteth, shall be unclean.

5 And whosoever toucheth his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

6 And 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.

7 And 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.

8 And 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.

9 And what saddle soever he rideth upon that hath the issue shall be unclean.

10 And 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.

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.

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.

13 And 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.

14 And on the eighth day he shall take to him two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and come before the LORD unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and give them unto the priest:

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.

16 And 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.

17 And every garment, and every skin, whereon is the seed of copulation, shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the even.

18 The woman also with whom man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even.

19 And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even.

20 And every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean: every thing also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean.

21 And whosoever toucheth her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

22 And whosoever toucheth any thing that she sat upon shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

23 And if it be on her bed, or on any thing whereon she sitteth, when he toucheth it, he shall be unclean until the even.

24 And if any man 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.

25 And 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.

26 Every 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.

27 And whosoever toucheth those things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

28 But if she be cleansed of her issue, then she shall number to herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean.

29 And 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 congregation.

30 And 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.

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 among them.

32 This is the law of him that hath an issue, and of him whose seed goeth from him, and is defiled therewith;

33 And 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.