Leviticus 12:3

_AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES, SAYING,_ Mankind are not only liable to defilement from without, but have internal causes of pollution lying deep in their nature. And hence, the laws which were given to restrain the Israelites from eating unclean animals, or coming in contact with those which died a natural death, were followed by a series of statutes relating to impurity connected with their own persons. These impurities are illustrated in a variety of instances in the following chapters, and traced through the successive stages of life to the period of death. The principle which underlies the legal processes of purification appears to be to awaken a lively sense of sin, by showing how deeply it has infected the whole nature of man-its influence and penal effects appearing in procreation, at birth, in the state of the body during life and at death; insomuch that the flesh, which, when c...

Verse Leviticus 12:3. _AND IN THE EIGHTH DAY_] Before this time the child could scarcely be considered as having strength sufficient to bear the operation; after this time it was not necessary to delay it, as the child was not considered to be in covenant with God, and consequently not under the especial protection of the Divine providence and grace, till this rite had been performed. On _circumcision_ Genesis 17:10, Genesis 17:10. Circumcision was to every man a _constant, evident_ sign of the covenant into which he had entered with God, and of the moral obligations under which he was thereby laid. It was also a means of _purity_, and was especially necessary among a...

This chapter would more naturally follow the 15th chapter of Leviticus. See the note to Leviticus 15:1....

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 concomitants of childbirth, and some diseases, as foul and defiling. In accordance with these instincts, purifying rites are commanded for the restoration of those affected to ceremonial cleanness. These instincts and consequent regulations respecting women in childbirth are found in very many different nations. "The Hindoo law pronounced the mother of a newborn child to be impure for forty days, required the father to bathe as soon as the birth had taken place, and debarred the whole family for a period from religious rites, while they were 'to confine themselves to an inward remembrance of the Deity;' in a Brahmin family this rule extended to all relations within t...

AND IN THE EIGHTH DAY THE FLESH OF HIS FORESKIN SHALL BE CIRCUMCISED. Or the foreskin of his flesh, that is, of the man child born according to the law, Genesis 17:12 and this seems to furnish out a reason why a male child was not circumcised before the eighth day, and why it was then, because before that its mother was in her separation and uncleanness, and then was freed from it; and so the Targum of Jonathan. The circumcision of a male child on the eighth day was religiously observed, and even was not omitted on account of the sabbath, when the eighth day happened to be on that, John 7:22 John 7:23. It is an observation of Aben Ezra on this place, that the wise men say "in the day", and not in the night, lo, he that is

2. CHILDBIRTH LAWS AND INHERITED SIN CHAPTER 12 _ 1. The man-child (Leviticus 12:1)_ 2. The maid-child (Leviticus 12:5) 3. The offerings (Leviticus 12:6) The childbirth laws as contained in this chapter are full of meaning. The woman is constituted unclean by the birth of a child. When a man-child was born, she was to be unclean for seven days, and her purification was to end thirty-three days after that; forty days after childbirth. (A. Bonar, in his work on Leviticus, makes the following conjecture: “May it have been the case that Adam and Eve remained only forty days unfallen! These forty days would thus be a reminiscence of that holy time on earth. The last Adam was forty

LEVITICUS 12. UNCLEANNESS AFTER CHILDBIRTH AND CIRCUMCISION. The period of uncleanness lasts twice as long after the birth of a girl (see on Leviticus 11). After the first week, when the uncleanness may be said to be milder, the child, if a boy, must be circumcised. At the end of the period of her purifying, for a child of either sex, sacrifices are to be offered, a combination of burnt and sin offering, to make atonement for her; a lamb, and a pigeon or a dove, except in case of poverty, when two pigeons or doves may be substituted. These provisions go back as far as those of Leviticus 9. Birth, like menstruation, is naturally regarded as uncanny, and sometimes as demon-caused. Hence, the woman must be set apart. The results are doubtless hygienic, though the emotional effect must often have been dangerous in early times; the code, which keeps up the restriction, says nothing about the...

CIRCUMCISED. See note on "leprosy", Leviticus 13:2....

C. 2. LAWS OF PURIFICATION AFTER CHILDBIRTH 12:1-8 a. THE PERIOD OF CEREMONIAL UNCLEANNESS AFTER CHILDBIRTH 12:1-5 TEXT 12:1-5 1 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman conceive seed, and bear a man-child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of the impurity of her sickness shall she be unclean. 3 And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. 4 And she shall continue in the blood of _her_ purifying three and thirty days; she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled. 5 But if she bear a maid-child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her impurity; and she shall continue in the blood of _her_ purifying threescore and six days. THOUGHT QUESTIONS 12:1-5 228. Is there any reason for God addressing this instruction to M...

UNCLEANNESS CONNECTED WITH CHILDBIRTH The functions of reproduction are in early stages of religion regarded with superstitious dread. The enactments in this chapter and the related regulations in Leviticus 15 had an important place in teaching the lesson of purity in sexual relationships....