{"commentary":{"id":"keil-delitzsch","name":"Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary","website":"https://worthy.bible/commentaries/keil-delitzsch-commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"bb5cc0f9cfe0a93b3c903bb6972c6bc8c4e9f2bd3be6c2a6d276737cf9c5edce","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/keil-delitzsch/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/keil-delitzsch/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":39,"totalNumberOfChapters":909,"totalNumberOfVerses":6516,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"LEV","commentaryId":"keil-delitzsch","name":"Leviticus","commonName":"Leviticus","introduction":"The Third Book of Moses(Leviticus)\n\nIntroduction\n\nContents, and Plan of Leviticus\n\nThe third book of Moses is headed תיקרא in the original text, from the opening word. In the Septuagint and Vulgate it is called Λευΐτικόν, sc., βιβλίον, Leviticus, from the leading character of its contents, and probably also with some reference to the titles which had obtained currency among the Rabbins, viz., \"law of the priests,\" \"law-book of sacrificial offerings.\" It carries on to its completion the giving of the law at Sinai, which commenced at Ex 25, and by which the covenant constitution was firmly established. It contains more particularly the laws regulating the relation of Israel to its God, including both the fundamental principles upon which its covenant fellowship with the Lord depended, and the directions for the sanctification of the covenant people in that communion. Consequently the laws contained in this book might justly be described as the \"spiritual statute-book of Israel as the congregation of Jehovah.\" As every treaty establishes a reciprocal relation between those who are parties to it, so not only did Jehovah as Lord of the whole earth enter into a special relation to His chosen people Israel in the covenant made by Him with the seed of Abraham, which He had chosen as His own possession out of all the nations, but the nation of Israel was also to be brought into a real and living fellowship with Him as its God and Lord. And whereas Jehovah would be Israel's God, manifesting Himself to it in all the fulness of His divine nature; so was it also His purpose to train Israel as His own nation, to sanctify it for the truest life in fellowship with Him, and to bless it with all the fulness of His salvation. To give effect to the former, or the first condition of the covenant, God had commanded the erection of a sanctuary for the dwelling-place of His name, or the true manifestation of His own essence; and on its erection, i.e., on the setting up of the tabernacle, He filled the most holy place with a visible sign of His divine glory (Exo 40:34), a proof that He would be ever near and present to His people with His almighty grace. When this was done, it was necessary that the other side of the covenant relation should be realized in a manner suited to the spiritual, religious, and moral condition of Israel, in order that Israel might become His people in truth. But as the nation of Israel was separated from God, the Holy One, by the sin and unholiness of its nature, the only way in which God could render access to His gracious presence possible, was by institutions and legal regulations, which served on the one hand to sharpen the consciousness of sin in the hearts of the people, and thereby to awaken the desire for mercy and for reconciliation with the holy God, and on the other hand furnished them with the means of expiating their sins and sanctifying their walk before God according to the standard of His holy commandments.\n\nAll the laws and regulations of Leviticus have this for their object, inasmuch as they, each and all, aim quite as much at the restoration of an inward fellowship on the part of the nation as a whole and the individual members with Jehovah their God, through the expiation or forgiveness of sin and the removal of all natural uncleanness, as at the strengthening and deepening of this fellowship by the sanctification of every relation of life. In accordance with this twofold object, the contents of the book are arranged in two larger series of laws and rules of life, the first extending from ch. 1 to ch. 16, the second from ch. 17 to ch. 25. The first of these, which occupies the earlier half of the book of Leviticus, opens with the laws of sacrifice in ch. 1-7. As sacrifices had been from the very beginning the principal medium by which men entered into fellowship with God, the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of the world, to supplicate and appropriate His favour and grace, so Israel was not only permitted to draw near to its God with sacrificial gifts, but, by thus offering its sacrifices according to the precepts of the divine law, would have an ever open way of access to the throne of grace. The laws of sacrifice are followed in ch. 8-10 by the consecration of Aaron and his sons, the divinely appointed priests, by their solemn entrance upon their official duties, and by the sanctification of their priesthood on the part of God, both in word and act. Then follow in ch. 11-15 the regulations concerning the clean and unclean animals, and various bodily impurities, with directions for the removal of all defilements; and these regulations culminate in the institution of a yearly day of atonement (ch. 16), inasmuch as this day, with its all-embracing expiation, foreshadowed typically and prefigured prophetically the ultimate and highest aim of the Old Testament economy, viz., perfect reconciliation. Whilst all these laws and institutions opened up to the people of Israel the way of access to the throne of grace, the second series of laws, contained in the later half of the book (ch. 17-25), set forth the demands made by the holiness of God upon His people, that they might remain in fellowship with Him, and rejoice in the blessings of His grace. This series of laws commences with directions for the sanctification of life in food, marriage, and morals (ch. 17-20); it then advances to the holiness of the priests and the sacrifices (ch. 21 and 22), and from that to the sanctification of the feasts and the daily worship of God (chs. 23 and 24), and closes with the sanctification of the whole land by the appointment of the sabbatical and jubilee years (ch. 25). In these the sanctification of Israel as the congregation of Jehovah was to be glorified into the blessedness of the sabbatical rest in the full enjoyment of the blessings of the saving grace of its God; and in the keeping of the year of jubilee more especially, the land and kingdom of Israel were to be transformed into a kingdom of peace and liberty, which also foreshadowed typically and prefigured prophetically the time of the completion of the kingdom of God, the dawn of the glorious liberty of the children of God, when the bondage of sin and death shall be abolished for ever.\n\nWhilst, therefore, the laws of sacrifice and purification, on the one hand, culminate in the institution of the yearly day of atonement, so, on the other, do those relating to the sanctification of life culminate in the appointment of the sabbatical and jubilee years; and thus the two series of laws in Leviticus are placed in unmistakeable correspondence to one another. In the ordinances, rights, and laws thus given to the covenant nation, not only was the way clearly indicated, by which the end of its divine calling was to be attained, but a constitution was given to it, fully adapted to all the conditions incident to this end, and this completed the establishment of the kingdom of God in Israel. To give a finish, however, to the covenant transaction at Sinai, it was still necessary to impress upon the hearts of the people, on the one hand, the blessings that would follow the faithful observance of the covenant of their God, and on the other hand, the evil of transgressing it (ch. 26). To this there are also added, in the form of an appendix, the instructions concerning vows. The book of Leviticus is thus rounded off, and its unity and independence within the Thorah are established, not only by the internal unity of its laws and their organic connection, but also by the fact, so clearly proved by the closing formula in ch.Lev 26:46 and Lev 27:34, that it finishes with the conclusion of the giving of the law at Sinai.","order":3,"numberOfChapters":27,"sha256":"ed4acf2efbeb87db224f450357b76c91e47cbf11c2ea830bbe5c24365c3ac799","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/keil-delitzsch/LEV/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"keil-delitzsch","book":"LEV","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":27,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/keil-delitzsch/LEV/27.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"keil-delitzsch","book":"LEV","chapter":27},"totalNumberOfVerses":221},"chapter":{"number":15,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["The running issue from a man is not described with sufficient clearness for us to be able to determine with certainty what disease is referred to: \"if a man becomes flowing out of his flesh, he is unclean in his flux.\" That even here the term flesh is not a euphemism for the organ of generation, as is frequently assumed, is evident from Lev 15:13, \"he shall wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water,\" when compared with Lev 16:23-24, Lev 16:28, etc., where flesh cannot possibly have any such meaning. The \"flesh\" is the body as in Lev 15:7, \"whoever touches the flesh of him that hath the issue,\" as compared with Lev 15:19, \"whosoever toucheth her.\" At the same time, the agreement between the law relating to the man with an issue and that concerning the woman with an issue (Lev 15:19, \"her issue in her flesh\") points unmistakeably to a secretion from the sexual organs. Only the seat of the disease is not more closely defined. The issue of the man is not a hemorrhoidal disease, for nothing is said about a flow of blood; still less is it a syphilitic suppuration (gonorrhaea virulenta), for the occurrence of this at all in antiquity is very questionable; but it is either a diseased flow of semen (gonorrhaea), i.e., an involuntary flow drop by drop arising from weakness of the organ, as Jerome and the Rabbins assume, or more probably, simply blenorrhaea urethrae, a discharge of mucus arising from a catarrhal affection of the mucous membrane of the urethra (urethritis). The participle זב יהיה is expressive of continued duration. In Lev 15:3 the uncleanness is still more closely defined: \"whether his flesh run with his issue, or his flesh closes before his issue,\" i.e., whether the member lets the matter flow out or by closing retains it, \"it is his uncleanness,\" i.e., in the latter case as well as the former it is uncleanness to him, he is unclean. For the \"closing\" is only a temporary obstruction, brought about by some particular circumstance. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["Every bed upon which he lay, and everything upon which he sat, was defiled in consequence; also every one who touched his bed (Lev 15:5), or sat upon it (Lev 15:6), or touched his flesh, i.e., his body (Lev 15:7), was unclean, and had to bathe himself and wash his clothes in consequence. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["The conveyance in which such a man rode was also unclean, as well as everything under him; and whoever touched them was defiled till the evening, and the person who carried them was to wash his clothes and bathe himself. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["This also applied to every one whom the man with an issue might touch, without first rinsing his hands in water. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["Vessels that he had touched were to be broken to pieces if they were of earthenware, and rinsed with water if they were of wood, for the reasons explained in Lev 11:33 and Lev 6:21. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["When he was cleansed, i.e., recovered from his issue, he was to wait seven days with regard to his purification, and then wash his clothes and bathe his body in fresh water, and be clean. On the eighth day he was to bring two turtle-doves or young pigeons, in order that the priest might prepare one as a sin-offering and the other as a burnt-offering, and make an atonement for him before the Lord for his issue. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["Involuntary emission of seed. - This defiled for the whole of the day, not only the man himself, but any garment or skin upon which any of it had come, and required for purification that the whole body should be bathed, and the polluted things washed. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["Sexual connection. \"If a man lie with a woman with the emission of seed, both shall be unclean till the evening, and bathe themselves in water.\" Consequently it was not the concubitus as such which defiled, as many erroneously suppose, but the emission of seed in the coitus. This explains the law and custom, of abstaining from conjugal intercourse during the preparation for acts of divine worship, or the performance of the same (Exo 19:5; Sa1 21:5-6; Sa2 11:4), in which many other nations resembled the Israelites. (For proofs see Leyrer's article in Herzog's Cyclopaedia, and Knobel in loco, though the latter is wrong in supposing that conjugal intercourse itself defiled.) \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["The menses of a woman. - \"If a woman have an issue, (if) blood is her issue in her flesh, she shall be seven days in her uncleanness.\" As the discharge does not last as a rule more than four or five days, the period of seven days was fixed on account of the significance of the number seven. In this condition she rendered every one who touched her unclean (Lev 15:19), everything upon which she lay or sat (Lev 15:20), every one who touched her bed or whatever she sat upon (Lev 15:21, Lev 15:22), also any one who touched the blood upon her bed or seat (Lev 15:23, where הוּא and בּו are to be referred to דּם); and they remained unclean till the evening, when they had to wash their clothes and bathe themselves. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["If a man lay with her and her uncleanness came upon him, he became unclean for seven days, and the bed upon which he lay became unclean as well. The meaning cannot be merely if he lie upon the same bed with her, but if he have conjugal intercourse, as is evident from Lev 20:18 and Num 5:13 (cf. Gen 26:10; Gen 34:2; Gen 35:22; Sa1 2:22). It cannot be adduced as an objection to this explanation, which is the only admissible one, that according to Lev 18:19 and Lev 20:18 intercourse with a woman during her menses was an accursed crime, to be punished by extermination. For the law in Lev 20:18 refers partly to conjugal intercourse during the hemorrhage of a woman after child-birth, as the similarity of the words in Lev 20:18 and Lev 12:7 (דּמיה מקור) clearly proves, and to the case of a man attempting cohabitation with a woman during her menstruation. The verse before us, on the contrary, refers simply to the possibility of menstruation commencing during the act of conjugal intercourse, when the man would be involuntarily defiled through the unexpected uncleanness of the woman. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["Diseased issue from a woman. - If an issue of blood in a woman flowed many days away from (not in) the time of her monthly uncleanness, or if it flowed beyond her monthly uncleanness, she was to be unclean as long as her unclean issue continued, just as in the days of her monthly uncleanness, and she defiled her couch as well as everything upon which she sat, as in the other case, also every one who touched either her or these things. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["After the issue had ceased, she was to purify herself like the man with an issue, as described in Lev 15:13-15. - Obedience to these commands is urged in Lev 15:31 : \"Cause that the children of Israel free themselves from their uncleanness, that they die not through their uncleanness, by defiling My dwelling in the midst of them.\" הזּיר, Hiphil, to cause that a person keeps aloof from anything, or loosens himself from it, from נזר, Niphal to separate one's self, signifies here deliverance from the state of uncleanness, purification from it. Continuance in it was followed by death, not merely in the particular instance in which an unclean man ventured to enter the sanctuary, but as a general fact, because uncleanness as irreconcilable with the calling of Israel to be a holy nation, in the midst of which Jehovah the Holy One had His dwelling-place (Lev 11:44), and continuance in uncleanness without the prescribed purification was a disregard of the holiness of Jehovah, and involved rebellion against Him and His ordinances of grace. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":32,"content":["Concluding formula. The words, \"him that lieth with her that is unclean,\" are more general than the expression, \"lie with her,\" in Lev 15:24, and involve not only intercourse with an unclean woman, but lying by her side upon one and the same bed. \n"]}],"introduction":"The Uncleanness of Secretions. - These include (1) a running issue from a man (Lev 15:2-15); (2) involuntary emission of seed (Lev 15:16, Lev 15:17), and the emission of seed in sexual intercourse (Lev 15:18); (3) the monthly period of a woman (Lev 15:19-24); (4) a diseased issue of blood from a woman (Lev 15:25-30). They consist, therefore, of two diseased and two natural secretions from the organs of generation. \n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/keil-delitzsch/LEV/15.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"keil-delitzsch","book":"LEV","chapter":15},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/keil-delitzsch/LEV/16.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"keil-delitzsch","book":"LEV","chapter":16},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/keil-delitzsch/LEV/14.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"keil-delitzsch","book":"LEV","chapter":14},"numberOfVerses":13}