Commentari biblici

XXII.

(1) And the Lord spake unto Moses.—In this chapter the laws regulating the conduct of the priests in their holy ministrations are continued. As the last chapter concluded with the permission to disqualified priests to eat of the sacrifices, this chapter opens with conditions under which even the legally qualified priests must not partake of the offerings.

(2) Separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel.—As parts of the sacrifices offered by the Israelites belonged to the priests, they are here warned that (see Leviticus 7:20-21) they are not to consider themselves absolutely entitled to them under all circumstances, and that there are times when they must abstain from them.

In those things which they hallow unto me.—That is, in their treatment of the sacrifices which the children of Israel have consecrated and offered to the Lord.

(3) Whosoever he be of all your seed, among your generations.—Better, throughout your generations, every man. So the Authorised version properly renders the expression here translated “among your generations” in Leviticus 23:14; Leviticus 23:21. (See Leviticus 3:17; Leviticus 21:17.)

That goeth unto the holy things.—That is, who approaches the sacrifices to eat them, as is stated in Leviticus 22:4; Leviticus 22:6; Leviticus 22:12.

Having his uncleanness upon him.—Not having first submitted to the prescribed lustrations (see Leviticus 7:20), the defilement which he contracted rests upon him.

That soul shall be cut off from my presence.—This phrase, with the expression “from my presence,” does not occur again in the Pentateuch when the Lord threatens with the penalty of excision. In Leviticus, where, besides the passage before us, the penalty is enacted six times, the formula is always, “that soul shall be cut off from his people” (Leviticus 7:20-21; Leviticus 7:25; Leviticus 7:27; Leviticus 19:8; Leviticus 23:29). Its exceptional form here may therefore have reference to the peculiar circumstances. If the priest ventures to approach the altar presumptuously to partake in a defiled state of the holy sacrifices, God himself will banish him from His presence as He did Nadab and Abihu.

(4) Is a leper.—The different forms of uncleanness are now specified. (For the leper, see Leviticus 13:3.)

Or hath a running issue.—See Leviticus 15:2.

Whoso toucheth any thing that is unclean by the dead.—That is, if he touches any person or anything that had been defiled through contact with a corpse. (See Numbers 19:11-14.)

Whose seed goeth from him.—This is the same case mentioned in Leviticus 15:16. The two passages ought therefore to be uniform in the translation.

(5) Or whosoever toucheth any creeping thing.—See Leviticus 11:24-44.

Or a man of whom he may take uncleanness.—Better, or a man who is unclean to him, that is, who is a leper (see Leviticus 13:45), or has an issue (see Leviticus 15:5, &c.), and who imparts defilement by contact.

(6) The soul which hath touched.—Better, the man who hath, that is, the priest for whom these laws are here enacted. Hence the ancient Chaldee version renders it “the man a priest.”

Shall be unclean until even.—When the day ends and another begins (see Leviticus 11:24-32), and when he had to immerse his body in water.

(7) And shall afterward eat . . . because it is his food.—As the sacrifices which were the perquisites of the officiating priests were the only things he had to live upon, the priest who had contracted defilement had virtually to go without food till sundown, when he purified himself by the prescribed lustrations.

That which dieth of itself.—That is, clean animals or birds which have not been properly slaughtered, but have met with an accident. These have already been forbidden to every ordinary Israelite. (See Leviticus 17:15.) In the case of a priest eating the proscribed meat the consequences would be more serious, inasmuch as he would be debarred from his sacerdotal duties.

Keep my ordinance.—That is, one laid down in the preceding verse with reference to animals which died a natural death, &c.

And die therefore, if they profane it.—The death here threatened for the transgression of the ordinance is one not to be inflicted by an earthly tribunal, but, as it was explained during the second Temple, “by the hand of heaven.” Hence the Chaldee version of Jonathan renders it, “lest they be killed for it by a flaming fire” like Nadab and Abihu.

(10) There shall no stranger eat of the holy thing.—By “stranger” here is meant a non-Aaronite who was a stranger to the priestly family, though he was an Israelite, or even a Levite. The holy things are the peace offerings. (See Leviticus 7:30.)

A sojourner of the priest.—This, during the second Temple, was a Hebrew servant whose ear had been pierced, and who thus became his master’s property till the year of jubile. (See Exodus 21:6.)

Or an hired servant.—That is, a Hebrew servant who is hired for several years, and who goes out free after six years. (See Exodus 21:2.) Neither of them was the property of the priest, though his labour and services belonged to him. As these Hebrew servants could not be bought with money like a heathen slave, they were treated like strangers, or non-Aaronites, and hence were not permitted to partake of the holy food.