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The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 11:1-47
PART III UNCLEANNESS, CEREMONIAL AND MORAL: ITS REMOVAL OR ITS PUNISHMENT SECTION I EXPOSITION THE two preceding parts having made manifest the way of approach to God by means of sacrifice and the appointed priesthood o…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 11:1
The Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron. Aaron, having now been consecrated high priest, is joined with Moses as the recipient of the laws on cleanness and uncleanness in Le Leviticus 11:1; Leviticus 13:1; Leviticus 14:3…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 11:2
These are the beasts that ye shall eat. In order that the Israelites might know how to avoid the uncleanness arising from the consumption of unclean flesh, plain rules are given them by which they may distinguish what f…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 11:5
The coney, Hebrew, shaphan; the Hyrax Syriacus, or wabr, still called in Southern Arabia tsofun, a little animal similar to but not identical with the rabbit. "They live in the natural caves and clefts of the rocks (Psa…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 11:6
The hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof, There is little doubt that the same animal as our hare is meant. Neither the hare, however, nor the hyrax chews the cud in the strict sense of the words.…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 11:7
The swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted. Here, again, the description is not according to anatomical analysis, but to ordinary appearance. The pig appears to be cloven-footed, and it would be misleadin…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 11:8
Of their carcass shall ye not touch. This prohibition is founded upon the same feeling of disgust as the prohibition of eating their flesh. Whatever is foal must be avoided.
Matthew Henry on Leviticus 11:9-19
Here is, 1. A general rule concerning fishes, which were clean and which not. All that had fins and scales they might eat, and only those odd sorts of water-animals that have not were forbidden, Leviticus 11:9-10. The a…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 11:9-12
Whatsoever hath fins and scales. The absence of fins and scales, or their apparent absence—for phenomenal language is used, as before—gives to fish a repulsive look, on which is grounded the prohibition to eat them. Eel…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 11:13-19
The unclean birds are those which are gross feeders, devourers of flesh or offal, and therefore offensive to the taste, beginning with the eagle and vulture tribe. It is probable that the words translated owl (Leviticus…
Matthew Henry on Leviticus 11:20-42
Here is the law, 1. Concerning flying insects, as flies, wasps, bees, &c.; these they might not eat (Leviticus 11:20), nor indeed are they fit to be eaten; but there were several sorts of locusts which in those countrie…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 11:20-23
All fowls that creep should rather be rendered all winged creeping things, that is, all flying insects. None are allowed except the Saltatoria, or locust family. The word translated beetle signifies a sort of locust, li…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 11:24-28
These verses contain an expansion of the warning contained in Leviticus 11:8, to the effect that the touch of the dead bodies of the forbidden animals was defiling, as well as the consumption of their flesh. A further m…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 11:31-38
As the little animals just mentioned—weasels, mice, and lizards—are more likely than those of a larger size to be found dead in domestic utensils and clothes, a further warning as to their defiling character is added, w…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 11:41-43
The last class is that of vermin, which constitute a part of the un-winged creeping class already spoken of (Leviticus 11:29, Leviticus 11:30). Whatsoever goeth upon the belly indicates snakes, worms, maggots: whatsoeve…
Matthew Henry on Leviticus 11:43-47
Here is, I. The exposition of this law, or a key to let us into the meaning of it. It was not intended merely for a bill of fare, or as the directions of a physician about their diet, but God would hereby teach them to…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 11:44-47
These concluding verses give a religious sanction to the previous regulations, and make them matters of sacred, not merely sanitary or political, obligation. They were to sanctify themselves, that is, to avoid uncleanne…
Matthew Henry on Leviticus 12:1-8
After the laws concerning clean and unclean food, come the laws concerning clean and unclean persons. Man imparts his depraved nature to his offspring, so that, excepting as the atonement of Christ and the sanctificatio…
Ceremonial Purification. (b. c. 1490.)
CEREMONIAL PURIFICATION. (B. C. 1490.) The law here pronounces women lying-in ceremonially unclean. The Jews say, "The law extended even to an abortion, if the child was so formed as that the sex was distinguishable." 1…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 12:1-8
EXPOSITION UNCLEANNESS DERIVED FROM CHILDBIRTH. As there is a natural disgust felt for some kinds of food, which serves as a foundation for the precepts of the last chapter, so there is an instinct which regards some of…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 12:1-8
The purification of the Church. At the commencement of his treatise on this Book of Leviticus, Cyril of Alexandria truly says, that as the Word of God came into the world arrayed in flesh, in which bodily appearance he…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 12:1-8
Born in sin. cf. Genesis 3:16; Psalms 51:5; Luke 2:21; 1 Timothy 2:15. From the division of the animals into clean and unclean, and the sanctity thereby inculcated, we are invited to proceed to those personal liabilitie…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 12:1-8
The statutes on maternity. We may seek— I. THE EXPLANATION or THIS STATUTE. And we shall find the explanation 1. The sorrow of maternity (John 16:21) points clearly to the primeval curse, and therefore to the primeval s…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 12:2-4
She shall be unclean seven days. The mother is to be unclean seven days, and after that to be in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days (Leviticus 12:4). The difference between these two states maybe seen by l…