These are unclean to you of all that creep,.... Unfit for food, and not to be touched, at least when dead, as in the next clause, that is, these eight sorts of creeping things before mentioned, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it, and these only, as Maimonides says (r): whosoever doth touch them when they are dead shall be unclean until the...
And upon whatsoever [any] of them, when they are dead, doth fall, it shall be unclean,.... Any of the above eight creeping things, that is, of their flesh, for as for their bones, nails, nerves, and skin, as before observed, being separated from them and dry, they do not defile: whether [it be] any vessel of wood, or raiment, or skin, or sack;...
And every earthen vessel, whereinto [any] of them falleth,.... Any of the above eight reptiles, should they by chance fall into the midst an earthen vessel: whatsoever [is] in it shall be unclean; if it only by falling touched the outside of it, it was not unclean; but if it fell into it, then whatever was contained in it was unclean; for, as...
Of all meat which may be eaten,.... Which otherwise is lawful to eat and fit for food, whether herbs, or whether the flesh of clean creatures: [that] on which [such] water cometh shall be unclean; that is, such water as is put into an unclean vessel, become so by the fall of any unclean reptile into it; wherefore such water poured out upon any...
And everything whereupon [any part] of their carcass falleth shall be unclean,.... Before the Scripture seems to speak of anyone of the reptiles perfect, that falling upon anything should pollute it; but here of any part of them, though ever so small, which should, through any accident, fall and light upon anything, even that would render it...
Nevertheless, a fountain or pit, [wherein there is] plenty of water,.... Or, "a fountain or pit, a collection of waters", the copulative being wanting, as some observe, Aben Ezra takes notice of; or it may be by way of apposition, and so may explain what fountain or pit is meant, even such an one where there is a large continence of water, into...
And if [any part] of their carcass fall upon any sowing seed that is to be sown,.... That which is selected from the other seed in order to be sown, and which is laid by and laid up for that purpose; should the carcass, or any part of the carcass of a creeping thing fall upon an heap of it, into a vessel in which it was put, as a dead mouse or the...
But if [any] water be put upon the seed,.... Either accidentally or on purpose; whether on sowing seed, and with water with which they water the field, as Aben Ezra interprets it; or on seed used for food, by steeping it in water, as sometimes wheat is, and boiled; and whether it is water or the rest of the liquors, and whether they are put on the...
And if any beast of which ye may eat die,.... Any clean beast, as the ox, sheep, goat, deer, c. what, if rightly killed, is very lawful to eat of but if it died of itself through any distemper, or was torn by the wild beasts, so the Targum of Jonathan: he that toucheth the carcass thereof shall be unclean until the even; not the bones, nerves,...
And he that eateth of the carcass of it,.... For though it might be eaten, if rightly killed, yet not if it died of itself, or was strangled, or torn to pieces by wild beasts: shall wash his clothes; besides his body, which even he that touched it was obliged to: and be unclean until the even; though he and his clothes were washed, and he might...
And every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth,.... Nothing is called a creeping thing, as Jarchi says, but what is low, has short feet, and is not seen unless it creeps and moves: and "every creeping thing" comprehends, as Aben Ezra and Ben Gersom observe, the eight creeping things before mentioned, Leviticus 11:29 and mention is made of...
Whatsoever goeth upon the belly,.... Jarchi's paraphrase is, "whatsoever goeth", as worms and beetles, and the like to them, "upon the belly", this is the serpent; and to go upon the belly is the curse denounced upon it, Genesis 3:14 this and every such creature are forbidden to be eaten; as there are others who either have no feet, or what they...
Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth,.... With any creeping thing that flies in the air, excepting the four sorts of locusts, Leviticus 11:22 and with any creeping thing in the waters, Leviticus 11:10 or with anything that creeps on the land, by eating any of them; which being abominable for food, would...
For I [am] the Lord your God,.... Their Lord, and therefore had a right to enjoin them what laws he pleased concerning their food; and their God, their covenant God, and therefore would consult their good, and direct them to what was most proper, convenient, and wholesome for them: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy, for...
For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt,.... He had brought them out of it, and was now bringing them on in the wilderness towards Canaan's land, in order to settle them there; and this is observed, to show what obligations they lay under to him to observe his commands; for since he had done such great things for them, it...
This [is] the law of the beasts,.... Clean and unclean, what were to be eaten, and what not, and of the fowl; Leviticus 11:2 the unclean ones, which are particularly mentioned that they might be avoided, all others excepting them being allowed, Leviticus 11:13: and of every living creature that moveth in the waters; all sorts of fish in the sea,...
To make a difference between the unclean and the clean,.... Whether of beasts, fish, fowl, and flying creeping things: and between the beast that may be eaten, and the beast that may not be eaten; the former clause takes in all in general, this instances in a particular sort of creatures; and the first mentioned of which, that might be eaten, are,...
INTRODUCTION TO Leviticus 12 This chapter treats of the purification of a new mother, the time of whose purification for a man child was forty days, and for a maid child eighty, Leviticus 12:1 at the close of which she was to bring her offerings to the priests, to make atonement for her, Leviticus 12:6.
And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... The laws in the preceding chapter were delivered both to Moses and Aaron, but what follows in this only to Moses; but inasmuch as the priest had a concern in it, it being his business to offer the sacrifices required by the following law, it was no doubt given to Moses, to be delivered to Aaron, as well as to the...
After the laws concerning clean and unclean food come the laws concerning clean and unclean persons; and the first is in this chapter concerning the ceremonial uncleanness of women in child-birth, ver. 1-5. And concerning their purification from that uncleanness, ver. 6, &c. Ceremonial Purification. (b. c. 1490.) 1 And the Lord spake unto Moses,...