1. EXCLUSION FROM THE CAMP Numbers 5:1. The rigidness of the law which excluded lepers from the camp and afterwards from the cities had its necessity in the presumed nature of their disease. Leprosy was regarded as contagious, and practically incurable by any medical appliances, requiring to be kep... [ Continue Reading ]
DEFILEMENT AND PURGATION Numbers 5:1 THE separation of Israel as a people belonging to Jehovah proceeded on ideas of holiness which excluded from privilege many of the Hebrews themselves. The law did not ordain that in cases of defilement there might be immediate purification by washing or sacrific... [ Continue Reading ]
2. ATONEMENT FOR TRESPASS Numbers 5:5 The enactment of this passage refers to the sin of theft or any other breach of the eighth commandment which involved trespass not only against man, but also against God-"When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit to do a trespass against the Lord... [ Continue Reading ]
3. THE WATER OF JEALOUSY Numbers 5:11. The long and remarkable statute regarding the water of jealousy seems to have been interposed to prevent, by means of an ordeal, that cruel practice of peremptory divorce which had been in vogue at some period among the Hebrews. The position given to woman by... [ Continue Reading ]