48443 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou shalt sanctify him therefore,.... In thought and word, as Aben Ezra, by thinking and speaking well of him; should esteem and reckon him a holy person, being in a sacred office, and honour him as such; and do all that can be done to preserve him from unholiness and impurity, and particularly from marrying with improper and unsuitable persons,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the daughter of any priest,.... The Targum of Jonathan restrains it to one that is betrothed; but others, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra, whether betrothed or married; and all confess, as the former says, that the Scripture does not speak of one that is single or entirely free: but there is no exception in the text; and besides, the daughter of any...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And [he that is] the high priest among his brethren,.... Either among his brethren, the priests, being in office above them; or among his brethren the Israelites, among and over whom he is high priest; or, as others render it, "the priest who is greater than his brethren" (d), in an higher office; the Jews say (e) the high priest was to be greater...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Neither shall he go in to any dead body,.... That is, into a tent or house where any dead body lies, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra interpret it, for whoever went into such a place was unclean seven days; and so long therefore an high priest, should he enter there, would be prevented doing the duty of his office, see Numbers 19:14; this was aped and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary,.... In the time of service, upon any occasion whatever; otherwise, when there was a necessity for it, he might go out from thence, though this was rarely done, and only in the night time: Maimonides (m) says he had a house prepared for him in the sanctuary, called the chamber of the high priest; and it was...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he shall take a wife in her virginity. One, and not two, or more, as Ben Gersom observes; and so Maimonides says (q), an high priest might never take two women together; for it is said, "a wife", or "woman", one, and not two; and so it is explained in the Talmud (r); for though polygamy was practised by the Israelites, and even by the common...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
A widow,.... The high priest might not marry, whether the widow of a priest or of an Israelite, as Aben Ezra, that is, of any Israelite that was not of the priesthood; and this, whether a widow after espousals, or after marriage, as runs the Jewish canon (u); the meaning is, that if she was betrothed to a man, and that man died before he married...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Neither shall he profane his seed among his people,.... By marrying any such persons, whereby his children, born of them, would lie under disgrace, and be unfit to succeed him in the priesthood, or by marrying among mean persons, or by marrying them to such as were unlawful, and would be a disparagement to them: for I the Lord do sanctify him;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... After he had spoken to him of the holiness of the priests, that they should not defile themselves, neither with the dead nor with impure marriages, he proceeded to add some things concerning blemishes in their bodies, which rendered them unfit for the service: saying; as follows.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Speak unto Aaron, saying,.... Who being the high priest, it was incumbent on him, at least at this time, to see that the laws and rules relating to the priesthood were observed; and particularly to examine carefully who were and who were not to be admitted to serve in it: whosoever [he be] of thy seed in their generations; or, "a man of thy seed"...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For whatsoever man [he be] that hath a blemish,.... Let him be otherwise ever so well qualified for his office, as with respect to his parentage, against which no objection lies; or, as to his character and abilities, being a man of knowledge and of good manners; and whether these blemishes be, as the Jews (z) call them, fixed, settled ones, which...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Or a man that is brokenfooted or brokenhanded. That has any of the bones or joints in his hands and feet broke, or when they are distorted, and he is clubfooted, or his fingers crooked and clustered together; and such a man could not be fit to ascend the altar, and lay the sacrifice in order upon it; and may be an emblem of such as are awkward or...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Or crookbackt,.... That has a protuberance, or bunch upon his back, one that we commonly call "hunchbacked"; the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem paraphrase it, "whose eyebrows lying cover his eyes;'' and so Jarchi, interprets it, the hair of whose eyebrows is long and lying; and so other Jewish writers understand it of some deformity about the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
No man that hath a blemish, of the seed of Aaron the priest,.... Whether an high priest or a common priest that lies on him anyone of the above blemishes; and which the Jewish writers (f) make to amount to the number of one hundred and forty, and which they reckon, so many in one part of the booty and so many in another, till they make up the said...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
He shall eat the bread of his God,.... That part of the sacrifices which was appropriated by the Lord to the priests, for the maintenance of them and their families; for though their natural infirmities disqualified them for service, yet they did not become hereby impure, either in a moral nor ceremonial sense, and might eat of the sacrifices,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Only he shall not go in unto the vail,.... So far as to the vail, which divided between the holy and the holy of holies; that is, he shall not go into the holy place which was before the vail; not to set the shewbread upon the table there, nor to light and him the lamps in the candlestick, nor to offer incense on the altar of incense, which stood...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Moses told [it] to Aaron, and to his sons,.... What God had said to him concerning the priests defiling themselves for the dead, both common priests and high priest, and concerning their marriages and their blemishes; that they might be careful not to transgress the laws and rules given them concerning those things: and to all the children of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Leviticus 22 In this chapter several laws are delivered out, forbidding the priests to eat of holy things, when in any uncleanness, or at any time what dies of itself, or is torn of beasts, Leviticus 22:1; also showing who belonging to the priests might or might not eat of the holy things, Leviticus 22:10; and others requiring that...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... Immediately after he had spoken concerning blemishes in priests, and in a continued discourse signifying, that though priests that had blemishes might eat of the holy things, yet neither they, nor even such who had not any, if they were under legal impurity, might eat of them: saying; as follows.
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
In this chapter we have divers laws concerning the priests and sacrifices all for the preserving of the honour of the sanctuary. I. That the priests should not eat the holy things in their uncleanness, ver. 1-9. II. That no stranger who did not belong to some family of the priests should eat of the holy things (ver. 10-13), and, if he did it...