1324 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore thou shalt say unto them,.... The Targum of Jonathan is, "thou shalt say to them the priests;'' but the words seem manifestly spoken to the Levites: when ye have heaved the best thereof from it; taken out the tenth part of it, and that the best: then it shall be counted unto the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor, and as the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And ye shall eat it in every place,.... In any of their tents or dwelling houses, not being obliged to eat it in the tabernacle, where the priests, were obliged to eat many of their holy things, and second tithes were only to be eaten at Jerusalem, Deuteronomy 14:22; but the Levites might eat theirs any where, in any place, clean or unclean,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And ye shall bear no sin by reason of it,.... Shall have no blame laid upon them, or guilt imputed to them, or punishment inflicted on them, on account of their having and enjoying their tithes and gifts: when ye have heaved from it the best of it; took out the tenth, and that the best, and given it to the priests; or otherwise they would be...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Numbers 19 This chapter contains a law for making a water for purification for sin, the ingredients of which are the ashes of a red heifer burnt, about which many things are observed, Numbers 19:1; the use of the water made of them, to purify such as were unclean by the touch of a dead body, Numbers 19:11; some rules are given, by...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron,.... Not at this time, after the business of the spies, and the affair of Korah, but before the children of Israel departed from Sinai; and so Aben Ezra observes, that this was spoken in the wilderness of Sinai, when the Lord commanded to put unclean persons out of the camp, and when some were defiled...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
This [is] the ordinance of the law which the Lord hath commanded,.... By which it appears, that this law was not of the moral, but of the ceremonial kind, being called an ordinance, a statute, a decree of God, the King of kings; and which was founded not on any clear plain reason in the thing itself, but in the will of God, who intended it as a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest,.... The son of Aaron; the Sagan of the priests, as the Targum of Jonathan calls him, the second or deputy priest; it was not to be given to Aaron, that he might not be defiled, though but for a small time, that so he might not be hindered in his office at all; but to Eleazar, to inure him to his...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger,.... He took the blood in his left hand, and sprinkled it with the finger of his right hand, as Maimonides says (a); and so the Targum of Jonathan, which says, he did not receive it into a vessel, but into the palm of his hand, and from thence sprinkled it with his finger (b): which...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And [one] shall burn the heifer in his sight,.... Another priest, as the Targum of Jonathan, Eleazar looking on, as that expresses it; the Jews say (g), that when the priest came to the mount of Olives, accompanied by the elders of Israel, before he burnt the cow, he dipped himself in a dipping place there; and the wood being laid there in order,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet,.... Another priest, according to the Targum of Jonathan; but it seems to design Eleazar the priest, and so, in later times, the same priest that burnt the cow took these things; the Jews say (h), when he took them he said, is this cedar wood? is this hyssop? is this scarlet? so he said...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then the priest shall wash his clothes,.... The Targum of Jonathan has it, "he that slew the cow,'' and Aben Ezra, the priest that burnt it; but it seems to mean Eleazar, the priest that sprinkled the blood, and by touching that was defiled and needed washing; and so the Jews (l) say, all that were employed about it, from the beginning to the end,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water,.... In forty seahs of water, as the Targum of Jonathan: this shows that one different from this is designed in Numbers 19:7; and that this is one distinct from him that sprinkled the blood, Numbers 19:4; and bathe his flesh in water: in a like quantity, as the above Targum: and shall be...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And a man [that is] clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer,.... A man, a clean priest, as the Targum of Jonathan; in later times great care was taken that the priest concerned in the burning of the red cow should be pure; he was separated from his own house seven days before the time, and every day he was sprinkled with the blood of all sin...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes,.... Whom the Targum of Jonathan calls a priest, though it does not seem necessary he should be one: and be unclean until the even; [See comments on Numbers 19:7]; and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for a statute for...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
He that toucheth the dead body of any man,.... A man and not a beast, as Aben Ezra observes; for he that touched the dead body of a beast was unclean only until evening, Leviticus 11:24; any man, Jew or Gentile, as the same writer notes: this is instanced in, as being the principal pollution, though not the only one, yet so some think, for which...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
He shall purify himself with it,.... That is, with the ashes of the water of purification made of them: and this was to be done first on the third day; from the time of his touching the dead body. Aben Ezra intimates, that there is a secret or mystery in this and the following number seven; it may respect the third day of Christ's resurrection,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself,.... With the ashes of the heifer, or water of purification, and so neglects the means which God has appointed for his cleansing: defileth the tabernacle of the Lord; that is, if he goes into it in his uncleanness, which it was not lawful for him to do: from the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
This is the law when a man dieth in a tent,.... A tent is only mentioned, because the Israelites now dwelt in tents, as Aben Ezra remarks; otherwise the law holds equally good of an house as of a tent: all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days; the meaning of which is, that all persons that come into a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And every open vessel,.... An earthen one, as the Targum of Jonathan; and so Jarchi interprets it; and Maimonides (r) observes, that this is only to be understood of an earthen vessel: which hath no covering bound upon it; a linen or a woollen cloth wrapped and tied about it: [is] unclean; the air of the house getting into it by its being...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields,.... That is killed by another, that dies a violent death, either by the sword or other means; one that touched such an one was unclean, or that touched the sword with which he was slain, as the Targum of Jonathan adds: "or a dead body": that dies a natural death, or...