Levililer 15:2 Yorum

In this chapter we have laws concerning other ceremonial uncleannesses contracted either by bodily disease like that of the leper, or some natural incidents, and this either, I. In men (v. 1-18). Or, II. In women (Lev 15:19-33). We need not be at all curious in explaining these antiquated laws, it is enough if we observe the general intention; but we have need to be very cautious lest sin take occasion by the commandment to become more exceedingly sinful; and exceedingly sinful it is when lust is kindled by sparks of fire from God's altar. The case is bad with the soul when it is putrefied by that which should purify it.

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 15 This chapter treats of uncleanness by issues in men and women; in men, a running issue, Lev 15:1, which defiles him, and everything he touches, or that touches him or them, Lev 15:4; the cleansing from which is directed to, Lev 15:13; and seed flowing from him, Lev 15:16; in women, their ordinary courses, Lev 15:19; or extraordinary ones, Lev 15:25; and the law for the cleansing of them, Lev 15:28; and a recapitulation of the whole, Lev 15:32.

Speak unto the children of Israel,.... From whence we learn, says the above mentioned writer, that these uncleannesses were only usual among the children of Israel, not among the Gentiles; that is, the laws respecting them were only binding on the one, and not on the other (s): and say unto them, when any man; in the Hebrew text it is, "a man, a man", which the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases, a young man, and an old man: hath a running issue out of his flesh; what physicians call a "gonorrhoea", and we, as in the margin of our Bibles, "the running of the reins": because of his issue, he is unclean; in a ceremonial sense, though it arises from a natural cause; but if not from any criminal one, from a debauch, but from a strain, or some such like thing, the man was not defiled, otherwise he was; the Targum of Jonathan is,"if he sees it three times he is unclean;''so the Misnah (t). (s) So Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Edaiot, c. 5. sect. 1. (t) Zabim, c. 1. sect. 1. Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.

Laws concerning uncleanness of men, Lev 15:1-12. Mode of cleansing, Lev 15:13-15. Of uncleanness, accidental and casual, Lev 15:16-18. Laws concerning the uncleanness of women, vv. 10-27. Mode of cleansing, Lev 15:28-30. Recapitulation of the ordinances relative to the preceding cases, Lev 15:31-33.

When any man hath a running issue - The cases of natural uncleanness, both of men and women, mentioned in this chapter, taken in a theological point of view, are not of such importance to us as to render a particular description necessary, the letter of the text being, in general, plain enough. The disease mentioned in the former part of this chapter appears to some to have been either the consequence of a very bad infection, or of some criminal indulgence; for they find that it might be communicated in a variety of ways, which they imagine are here distinctly specified. On this ground the person was declared unclean, and all commerce and connection with him strictly forbidden. The Septuagint version renders הזב hazzab, the man with the issue, by ὁ γονορῥυης, the man with a gonorrhea, no less than nine times in this chapter; and that it means what in the present day is commonly understood by that disorder, taken not only in its mild but in its worst sense, they think there is little room to doubt. Hence they infer that a disease which is supposed to be comparatively recent in Europe, has existed almost from time immemorial in the Asiatic countries; that it ever has been, in certain measures, what it is now; and that it ever must be the effect of sensual indulgence, and illicit and extravagant intercourse between the sexes. The disgraceful disorder referred to here is a foul blot which the justice of God in the course of providence has made in general the inseparable consequent of these criminal indulgences, and serves in some measure to correct and restrain the vice itself. In countries where public prostitution was permitted, where it was even a religious ceremony among those who were idolaters, this disease must necessarily have been frequent and prevalent. When the pollutions and libertinism of former times are considered, it seems rather strange that medical men should have adopted the opinion, and consumed so much time in endeavoring to prove it, viz., that the disease is modern. It must have existed, in certain measures, ever since prostitution prevailed in the world; and this has been in every nation of the earth from its earliest era. That the Israelites might have received it from the Egyptians, and that it must, through the Baal-peor and Ashteroth abominations which they learned and practiced, have prevailed among the Moabites, etc., there can be little reason to doubt. Supposing this disease to be at all hinted at here, the laws and ordinances enjoined were at once wisely and graciously calculated to remove and prevent it. By contact, contagion of every kind is readily communicated; and to keep the whole from the diseased must be essential to the check and eradication of a contagious disorder. This was the wise and grand object of this enlightened Legislator in the ordinances which he lays down in this chapter. I grant, however, that it was probably of a milder kind in ancient times; that it has gained strength and virulence by continuance; and that, associated with some foreign causes, it became greatly exacerbated in Europe about 1493, the time in which some have supposed it first began to exist, though there are strong evidences of it in this country ever since the eleventh century.

UNCLEANNESS OF MEN. (Lev. 15:1-18) When any man hath a running issue--This chapter describes other forms of uncleanness, the nature of which is sufficiently intelligible in the text without any explanatory comment. Being the effects of licentiousness, they properly come within the notice of the legislator, and the very stringent rules here prescribed, both for the separation of the person diseased and for avoiding contamination from anything connected with him, were well calculated not only to prevent contagion, but to discourage the excesses of licentious indulgence.

The Uncleanness of Secretions. - These include (1) a running issue from a man (Lev 15:2-15); (2) involuntary emission of seed (Lev 15:16, Lev 15:17), and the emission of seed in sexual intercourse (Lev 15:18); (3) the monthly period of a woman (Lev 15:19-24); (4) a diseased issue of blood from a woman (Lev 15:25-30). They consist, therefore, of two diseased and two natural secretions from the organs of generation.

The running issue from a man is not described with sufficient clearness for us to be able to determine with certainty what disease is referred to: "if a man becomes flowing out of his flesh, he is unclean in his flux." That even here the term flesh is not a euphemism for the organ of generation, as is frequently assumed, is evident from Lev 15:13, "he shall wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water," when compared with Lev 16:23-24, Lev 16:28, etc., where flesh cannot possibly have any such meaning. The "flesh" is the body as in Lev 15:7, "whoever touches the flesh of him that hath the issue," as compared with Lev 15:19, "whosoever toucheth her." At the same time, the agreement between the law relating to the man with an issue and that concerning the woman with an issue (Lev 15:19, "her issue in her flesh") points unmistakeably to a secretion from the sexual organs. Only the seat of the disease is not more closely defined. The issue of the man is not a hemorrhoidal disease, for nothing is said about a flow of blood; still less is it a syphilitic suppuration (gonorrhaea virulenta), for the occurrence of this at all in antiquity is very questionable; but it is either a diseased flow of semen (gonorrhaea), i.e., an involuntary flow drop by drop arising from weakness of the organ, as Jerome and the Rabbins assume, or more probably, simply blenorrhaea urethrae, a discharge of mucus arising from a catarrhal affection of the mucous membrane of the urethra (urethritis). The participle זב יהיה is expressive of continued duration. In Lev 15:3 the uncleanness is still more closely defined: "whether his flesh run with his issue, or his flesh closes before his issue," i.e., whether the member lets the matter flow out or by closing retains it, "it is his uncleanness," i.e., in the latter case as well as the former it is uncleanness to him, he is unclean. For the "closing" is only a temporary obstruction, brought about by some particular circumstance.