INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 21 This chapter respects the priests, the sons of Aaron, and forbids their mourning for the dead, unless in some cases, Leviticus 21:1; or their marriage with an whore or a divorced woman, Leviticus 21:7; and the daughters of any of them to commit fornication, which is mad... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES,.... According to some Jewish writers this was said on the day the tabernacle was set up; no doubt it was delivered at the same time the above laws were given; and as care was taken for the purity and holiness of the Israelites in general, it was necessary that the pries... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT FOR HIS KIN THAT IS NEAR UNTO HIM,.... For such he might be defiled and mourn, or be where they were, and take care of, and attend their funerals: this clause some take to be general, of which the particulars follow, as Aben Ezra; but others take it to be the first particular excepted, and insta... [ Continue Reading ]
AND FOR HIS SISTER A VIRGIN, THAT IS NIGH UNTO HIM,.... That is, his sister by both father's and mother's side, as Aben Ezra; though, according to Gersom, his sister by his father's side, and not by his mother's side, is meant; but, according to Alphes, by his mother's side: perhaps this may signify... [ Continue Reading ]
[BUT] HE SHALL NOT DEFILE HIMSELF, [BEING] A CHIEF MAN AMONG HIS PEOPLE,.... Which is not to be understood of any lord or nobleman or any chief ruler or governor of the people; for the context speaks only of priests, and not of other personages; besides, such might defile themselves, or mourn for th... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL NOT MAKE BALDNESS UPON THEIR HEAD,.... For the dead, as Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Ben Gersom; not shave their heads, or round the corners of them, or make baldness between their eyes on that account; as those things were forbid the Israelites, so the priests also; this and what follow being... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL BE HOLY UNTO THEIR GOD,.... Sacred to his service, and wholly given up to it, and not interest themselves in things which hindered from it, or made them unfit for it; and such care becomes the ministers of the word, who should give up themselves to it, and not entangle themselves with oth... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL NOT TAKE A WIFE [THAT IS] A WHORE, OR PROFANE,.... By the former is meant a common whore, that prostitutes herself to any one through lust or for gain; and by the latter one whose chastity is violated, but either unwillingly, that has been forced and ravished, or else willingly, being ent... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT SANCTIFY HIM THEREFORE,.... In thought and word, as Aben Ezra, by thinking and speaking well of him; should esteem and reckon him a holy person, being in a sacred office, and honour him as such; and do all that can be done to preserve him from unholiness and impurity, and particularly fro... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE DAUGHTER OF ANY PRIEST,.... The Targum of Jonathan restrains it to one that is betrothed; but others, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra, whether betrothed or married; and all confess, as the former says, that the Scripture does not speak of one that is single or entirely free: but there is no exceptio... [ Continue Reading ]
AND [HE THAT IS] THE HIGH PRIEST AMONG HIS BRETHREN,.... Either among his brethren, the priests, being in office above them; or among his brethren the Israelites, among and over whom he is high priest; or, as others render it, "the priest who is greater than his brethren" d, in an higher office; the... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER SHALL HE GO IN TO ANY DEAD BODY,.... That is, into a tent or house where any dead body lies, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra interpret it, for whoever went into such a place was unclean seven days; and so long therefore an high priest, should he enter there, would be prevented doing the duty of his... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER SHALL HE GO OUT OF THE SANCTUARY,.... In the time of service, upon any occasion whatever; otherwise, when there was a necessity for it, he might go out from thence, though this was rarely done, and only in the night time: Maimonides m says he had a house prepared for him in the sanctuary, ca... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SHALL TAKE A WIFE IN HER VIRGINITY. One, and not two, or more, as Ben Gersom observes; and so Maimonides says q, an high priest might never take two women together; for it is said, "a wife", or "woman", one, and not two; and so it is explained in the Talmud r; for though polygamy was practise... [ Continue Reading ]
A WIDOW,.... The high priest might not marry, whether the widow of a priest or of an Israelite, as Aben Ezra, that is, of any Israelite that was not of the priesthood; and this, whether a widow after espousals, or after marriage, as runs the Jewish canon u; the meaning is, that if she was betrothed... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER SHALL HE PROFANE HIS SEED AMONG HIS PEOPLE,.... By marrying any such persons, whereby his children, born of them, would lie under disgrace, and be unfit to succeed him in the priesthood, or by marrying among mean persons, or by marrying them to such as were unlawful, and would be a disparage... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES,.... After he had spoken to him of the holiness of the priests, that they should not defile themselves, neither with the dead nor with impure marriages, he proceeded to add some things concerning blemishes in their bodies, which rendered them unfit for the service: SAY... [ Continue Reading ]
SPEAK UNTO AARON, SAYING,.... Who being the high priest, it was incumbent on him, at least at this time, to see that the laws and rules relating to the priesthood were observed; and particularly to examine carefully who were and who were not to be admitted to serve in it: WHOSOEVER [HE BE] OF THY S... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WHATSOEVER MAN [HE BE] THAT HATH A BLEMISH,.... Let him be otherwise ever so well qualified for his office, as with respect to his parentage, against which no objection lies; or, as to his character and abilities, being a man of knowledge and of good manners; and whether these blemishes be, as t... [ Continue Reading ]
OR A MAN THAT IS BROKENFOOTED OR BROKENHANDED. That has any of the bones or joints in his hands and feet broke, or when they are distorted, and he is clubfooted, or his fingers crooked and clustered together; and such a man could not be fit to ascend the altar, and lay the sacrifice in order upon it... [ Continue Reading ]
OR CROOKBACKT,.... That has a protuberance, or bunch upon his back, one that we commonly call "hunchbacked"; the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem paraphrase it, "whose eyebrows lying cover his eyes;'' and so Jarchi, interprets it, the hair of whose eyebrows is long and lying; and so other Jewish... [ Continue Reading ]
NO MAN THAT HATH A BLEMISH, OF THE SEED OF AARON THE PRIEST,.... Whether an high priest or a common priest that lies on him anyone of the above blemishes; and which the Jewish writers f make to amount to the number of one hundred and forty, and which they reckon, so many in one part of the booty and... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SHALL EAT THE BREAD OF HIS GOD,.... That part of the sacrifices which was appropriated by the Lord to the priests, for the maintenance of them and their families; for though their natural infirmities disqualified them for service, yet they did not become hereby impure, either in a moral nor cerem... [ Continue Reading ]
ONLY HE SHALL NOT GO IN UNTO THE VAIL,.... So far as to the vail, which divided between the holy and the holy of holies; that is, he shall not go into the holy place which was before the vail; not to set the shewbread upon the table there, nor to light and him the lamps in the candlestick, nor to of... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MOSES TOLD [IT] TO AARON, AND TO HIS SONS,.... What God had said to him concerning the priests defiling themselves for the dead, both common priests and high priest, and concerning their marriages and their blemishes; that they might be careful not to transgress the laws and rules given them con... [ Continue Reading ]