Leviticus 12:8

_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 12:8. _AND IF SHE BE NOT ABLE TO BRING A LAMB, THEN SHE_ _SHALL BRING TWO TURTLES, OR TWO YOUNG PIGEONS_] As the Virgin Mary brought only the latter, hence it is evident that she _was_ _not able_, i. e., she was not _rich_ enough to provide the former; for such a holy woman would not have brought the _less offering_ had she been capable of bringing the _greater_. How astonishing is this! The only heir to the throne of David was not able to bring a _lamb_ to offer in sacrifice to God! How abominable must SIN be when it required him who was in the form of God thus to empty and to humble himself, yea, even to the death of the cross, in order to make an atonement for it, and to purify the soul from all defilement! _THE PRIEST SHALL MAKE AN ATONEMENT FOR HER_] Every act of man is sinful, but

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 IF SHE BE NOT ABLE TO BRING A LAMB,.... As everyone was not in circumstances sufficient to be at the expense of buying a lamb for this purpose, having none of their own: THEN SHE SHALL BRING TWO TURTLES, OR TWO YOUNG PIGEONS; which was a kind and merciful provision for the poorer sort; since it was necessary that by them the favour received should be acknowledged, as well as the sin attending them in such circumstances should be atoned for. This being the offering brought by the mother of our Lord, shows the state of poverty in which she was; and by this, and the circumcision of her child, and the presentation of it before the Lord at the time of her purification, it appears that they were both under the law, and obedient to it: THE ONE FOR A BURNT OFFERING, AND THE OTHER FOR A SIN [OFFERING]; Jarchi observes, that in oblations the sin offering goes before the burnt offering, for s...

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...

TWO TURTLES. See Luke 2:22; Luke 2:24, and compare 2 Corinthians 8:9....

_if her means suffice not for a lamb_ -if she be not able to bring," A.V. Its mg. -If her hand find not sufficiency of," is the literal rendering of the Heb....

IF SHE BE NOT ABLE TO BRING A LAMB, THEN SHE SHALL BRING TWO TURTLES— See note on ch. Leviticus 5:7, &c. The mother of our blessed LORD was in so humble a state of life as to be able only to bring this offering, mercifully ordained for those in that state. Learn we hence how much our Redeemer humbled himself for our salvation!...