Leviticus 21:1

_AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES, SPEAK UNTO THE PRIESTS THE SONS OF AARON, AND SAY UNTO THEM, THERE SHALL NONE BE DEFILED FOR THE DEAD AMONG HIS PEOPLE:_ There shall none be defiled for the dead, х_ LªNEPESH_ (H5315)] - for a soul. The obvious design of the regulations contained in this chapter was to keep inviolate the purity and dignity of the sacred office. Contact with a corpse, or even contiguity to the place where it lay, entailing ceremonial defilement (Numbers 19:14), all mourners were debarred from the tabernacle for a week; and as the exclusion of a priest during that period would have been attended with great inconvenience, the whole order were enjoined to abstain from all approaches to the dead, except at the funerals of relatives х_ LISH'EEROW_ (H7607), for his fle

1._Speak unto the priests. _All these things which follow tend to the same end, _i.e., _that the priests may differ from the rest of the people by notable marks, as if separated from ordinary men; for special purity became those who represented the person of Christ. It seems, indeed, as if God here gave precepts respecting small and unimportant things; but we have elsewhere said that the legal rites were as it were steps by which the Israelites might ascend to the study of true holiness. The declaration of Paul indeed was always true, that “bodily exercise profiteth little,” (1 Timothy 4:8;) but the use of the ancient shadows under the Law must be estimated by their end. Although, therefore, the observation of the things which are now treated of did not of itself greatly please God, yet inasmuch as it had a higher tendency, it was sinful to make light of it. Now though the priest

CHAPTER XXI _The priests shall not mourn for the dead, except for near_ _relatives, such as_ mother, father, son, daughter, _and_ sister _if a virgin_, 1-4. _They shall not shave their heads nor beards, nor make any_ _cuttings in the flesh, because they are holy unto God_, 5, 6. _A priest shall not marry a woman who is a whore, profane, or_ _divorced from her husband_, 7, 8. _Of the priest's daughter who profanes herself_, 9. _The high priest shall not uncover his head, or rend his clothes_, 10;...

PART III. SECTION IV. THE UNCLEANNESS AND DISQUALIFICATION OF PRIESTS. EXPOSITION The two remaining chapters of this division of the book (Leviticus 21:1, Leviticus 22:1) deal with the ease of defilements attaching to the priesthood, over and above those which affect other men, whether ceremonial (Leviticus 21:1, Leviticus 21:10-3; Leviticus 22:

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 priests that were concerned in a more especial manner in the service and worship of God should be holy also, and have some instructions given them to take care and keep themselves from all defilements; and particularly the Jewish writers observe, that this paragraph or section concerning the priests follows upon, and is in connection with the law concerning such as have familiar spirits, and wizards, to teach men, that in matters of doubt and difficulty they should not have recourse to such persons, but to the priests of the Lord: SPEAK UNTO THE PRIESTS, THE SONS OF AARON; the priests, whether eld...

4. LAWS FOR THE PRIESTS CHAPTER 21 _ 1. Laws concerning the person of the priests (Leviticus 21:1)_ 2. Laws concerning their family (Leviticus 21:7) 3. Laws concerning the high priest (Leviticus 21:10) 4. Concerning blemishes (Leviticus 21:16) We come now to the special laws and precepts for the priestly class among the people. The preceding laws concerned the nation as such. The requirements of the priests are the highest in the entire book of Leviticus. Responsibility is always according to relationship. The priests, as we have seen before, typify the church. The grace

RESTRICTIONS FOR THE PRIESTS. To approach a corpse was to suffer defilement (_cf._ Numbers 5:2 * Numbers 19*, Tob_2:8 ff., Sir_34:25); this is, therefore, forbidden to the priest, except in the case of the nearest relations; Ezekiel (Ezekiel 44:26) prescribes a period of seven days-' cleansing even in this latter case. The mourning is looked upon as something needed by the dead or due to their memory; a married sister would ordinarily be mourned by her husband this is probably the meaning of the original text of Leviticus 21:4; if his sister were a widow, the priest might act in place of her husband. Similar restrictions are common elsewhere for priests, as also are the prohibitions of the outward signs of mourning. A

THE LORD. Hebrew. _Jehovah._ App-4. SAID. See note on Leviticus 5:14. THE PRIESTS THE SONS OF AARON. Occurs only here. In all the other seven passages it is in Hebrew "the sons of Aaron, the priests". See Leviticus 1:5. THE DEAD. a dead soul. Hebrew. _nephesh._ See App-13, and note on Leviticus 19:28....

_Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron_ A quite unusual formula, not occurring elsewhere in the Pentateuch. _defile himself for the dead_ The defilement caused by touching a dead body lasted for seven days, and required purification by the water in which the ashes of the red heifer have been mixed, Numbers 19:11-20 (P). The Romans (Serv _ad Aen_. vi. 176) used to set up a branch of cypress in front of a house containing a dead body, lest one of the pontifices should inadvertently enter and so contract pollution....

SPEAK UNTO THE PRIESTS, THE SONS OF AARON— Respecting the general notion of defilement from dead bodies, we refer to Numbers 19:11; Numbers 19:22.—The priests, on account of their function, are ordered to have no concern with dead bodies; i.e. not to touch them, prepare them for burial, be present at their funeral, or come into the tents where they are; since thus they would be legally _defiled,_ and unfit for the duties of their office: yet, in the case of near relations, they were allowed the usual custom of mourners, Leviticus 21:2. What we render _for the dead,_ is נפשׁ _nepesh,_ a word often used for the animal frame, either with or without life; see...