HAYDOCK CATHOLIC BIBLE COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT

LEVITICUS 15

CHAPTER XV.

Ver. 2. Issue of seed, shall be unclean. These legal uncleannesses were instituted in order to give the people a horror of carnal impurities. Ch. --- If the gonorrhÅ“a, and the lawful act of marriage, (v. 16,) and nocturnal delusions, (Deut. xxiii. 10,) induce a kind of uncleanness---surely to imitate Onan is most detestable, Gen. xxviii. 9. T. --- The Jews rank the latter crime with murder, and so does Tertullian. See Ex. xxi. 22.

Ver. 3. At every moment, is not in Heb., but something like it occurs in the Sam. and Sept. According to the Heb. the uncleanness subsists for some time after the issue has ceased. Grotius pretends that these disorders were contagious; but the reason why God requires such purity in his people, is given v. 31. He dwelt among them, and would not allow of any disrespectful behaviour. There were to live like priests in his temple. The pagans in Egypt, Greece, and Italy, required the like attention to cleanliness in their priests. Herod. ii. --- Noctem flumine purgas. Persius ii. C.

Ver. 11. Such a one; the person under the disorder, unless he have washed his hands.

Ver. 12. Broken, after he is perfectly healed. C.

Ver. 15. Offer, (faciet) "shall sacrifice." D. --- For sin. Legal, or any other that he may have incurred.

Ver. 16. Evening, whether the action were lawful or not. M. --- Some explain this verse, of nocturnal inconveniences; and v. 18, of the act of marriage. The latter rendered unclean only in as much as it hindered a person from partaking of any thing sacred, though he might perform the duties of life. C. --- This law was to lay some restraint on the too frequent use of marriage. Theodoret. D.

Ver. 19. At...month. The Heb. and other versions omit this. C. --- But "her issue in her flesh," implies as much. H. --- Naturalists anciently deemed this very contagious. Solin c. i. Plin. ix. 15. C. --- Days, not out of the camp, but from the company of men.

Ver. 20. One, except infants, &c.

Ver. 24. Days, supposing the case was not brought before the judge, and the man did it through ignorance: otherwise it was death. C. xx. 18.

Ver. 25. Blood, hÃ¦morrhoids. M. --- Flowers. Heb. "all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation. She shall be unclean."

Ver. 28. Run. Then she might act as usual, without defiling what she touched. It seems from v. 13, that this law regarded only the time while the tabernacle was in the camp. It would have been very difficult to observe it, when the people were dispersed throughout the land of Chanaan. C.

Ver. 31. Teach. So the Sept. also read. Heb. "Thus you shall remove...from their filth." Houbig. --- Filth. God threatens to kill them, if they approach unclean. M. --- S. Jerom (in Gal. v.) understands this of those abominable sins, which ought not to be mentioned. W.