Bible Commentaries
Leviticus 12

Introduction

CHAPTER 12

:-. WOMAN'S UNCLEANNESS BY CHILDBIRTH.

Verse 2

2. If a woman, c.—The mother of a boy was ceremonially unclean for a week, at the end of which the child was circumcised (Genesis 17:12 Romans 4:11-13); the mother of a girl for two weeks (Leviticus 12:5) —a stigma on the sex (1 Timothy 2:14; 1 Timothy 2:15) for sin, which was removed by Christ; everyone who came near her during that time contracted a similar defilement. After these periods, visitors might approach her though she was still excluded from the public ordinances of religion [Leviticus 12:4].

Verse 6

6-8. the days of her purifying—Though the occasion was of a festive character, yet the sacrifices appointed were not a peace offering, but a burnt offering and sin offering, in order to impress the mind of the parent with recollections of the origin of sin, and that the child inherited a fallen and sinful nature. The offerings were to be presented the day after the period of her separation had ended—that is, forty-first for a boy, eighty-first for a girl.

Verse 8

8. bring two turtles, &c.—(See on Leviticus 5:6). This was the offering made by Mary, the mother of Jesus, and it affords an incontestable proof of the poor and humble condition of the family (Leviticus 5:6- :).