Leviticus 15:31

Lev 15:31 Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle that [is] among them.

Ver. 31. That they die not.] Which is worse than to die in a ditch.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This solemn admonition is addressed to Moses and Aaron, see Lev 15:1.

Lev 15:31

My tabernacle - Strictly, “my dwelling-place” משׁכן mı̂shkān, as in Lev 8:10; Lev 17:4; Lev 26:11. The word rendered “tabernacle” elsewhere in Leviticus is properly “tent.” See the Exo 26:1 note.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Lev 15:31. When they defile my tabernacle — Both ceremonially, by coming into it in their uncleanness; and morally, by the contempt of God’s express command to cleanse themselves. This shows that one main design of these laws was to impress the minds of that carnal people with a high respect and veneration for the worship of God, and whatever bore the name of sacred. It was to separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness. Hereby they were taught their privilege and their honour, that they were purified unto God a peculiar people; for that was a defilement to them which was not to others. They were also taught their duty, which was to keep themselves clean from all pollution.

From all this, 1st, Let us learn to bless God that we are not under the yoke of these carnal ordinances; that, as nothing can defile us, so nothing can destroy us, but sin. They may now partake of the Lord’s supper, who durst not then eat of the peace-offering. And the defilement we contract by our daily infirmities we may be cleansed from in secret, by the renewed acts of repentance and faith, without bathing in water, or bringing an offering to the door of the tabernacle. 2d, Let us carefully abstain from all sin, as defiling to the conscience, and particularly from all fleshly lusts; possessing our vessel in sanctification and honour, and not in the lusts of uncleanness, which not only pollute the soul, but war against it, and threaten its ruin. 3d, Let us consider, and be persuaded, how indispensably necessary real holiness is to our future happiness; and get our hearts purified by faith, that we may be admitted to see God, and enter into the heavenly sanctuary to worship and rejoice before him. Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, and none else; for without holiness no man shall see the Lord.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Seeing that God required of his purity and cleanness: we cannot be his, except our filth and sins be purged with the blood of Jesus Christ, and so we learn to detest all sin.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness--The divine wisdom was manifested in inspiring the Israelites with a profound reverence for holy things; and nothing was more suited to this purpose than to debar from the tabernacle all who were polluted by any kind of uncleanness, ceremonial as well as natural, mental as well as physical. The better to mark out that people as His family, His servants and priests, dwelling in the camp as in a holy place, consecrated by His presence and His tabernacle, He required of them complete purity, and did not allow them to come before Him when defiled, even by involuntary or secret impurities, as a want of respect due to His majesty. And when we bear in mind that God was training a people to live in His presence in some measure as priests devoted to His service, we shall not consider these rules for the maintenance of personal purity either too stringent or too minute (Th1 4:4).

Next: Leviticus Chapter 16

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 31. Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness] By this separation the cause became less frequent, and the contagion, if it did exist, was prevented from spreading. So pest-houses and fever-wards are constructed for the purpose of separating the infected from the sound; and thus contagion is lessened, and its diffusion prevented.

That they die not] That life may be prolonged by these prudential cares; and that he who is morally and legally unclean, may not presume to enter into the tabernacle of God till purified, lest he provoke Divine justice to consume him, while attempting to worship with a polluted mind and impure hands.

1. How unpromising and how forbidding, at the first view, is this chapter! and yet how full of wise, humane, and moral regulations, manifesting at once the wisdom and kindness of the great Legislator! Every word of God is pure in itself, and of great importance to us. He who cannot derive instruction from the chapter before him, and be led by a proper consideration of its contents to adore the wisdom and goodness of God, must have either a very stupid or a very vitiated mind.

2. In all these ordinances we may plainly see that God has purity of heart continually in view - that the soul may be holy, he cuts off the occasions of sin; and that men may be obliged to keep within due bounds, and possess their vessels in sanctification and honour, he hedges up their way with briars and thorns, and renders transgression painful, shameful, and expensive.

3. Preventing grace is not less necessary than that which saves and which preserves. These three chapters, avoided and neglected by most, contain lessons of instruction for all; and though many things contained in them belong exclusively to the Jewish people as to the letter, yet in their spirit and gracious design they form a part of those revealed things which are for us and for our children; and although they cannot be made the subject of public oral instruction, yet they are highly necessary to be known, and hence the advantage of reading the Scriptures in regular order in private. May we read so as to understand, and practise what we know, that, being wise unto salvation, we may walk as children of the light and of the day, in whom there shall be no occasion of stumbling!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(31) Thus shall ye separate.—That is, according to the regulations laid down in this chapter. “Ye”—i.e., Moses and Aaron, to whom they were conjointly addressed (see Lev_15:1)—are to restrain the children of Israel, lest they be punished with death when they approach the Lord in a defiled state.

Defile my tabernacle.—Better, my dwelling place, which can here be used, though in Lev_8:10, where it also occurs, the expression “dwelling-place” does not suit so well.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

31. A reason for these purifications is given.

my tabernacle] Another name for the tabernacle is (Heb. mishkân) dwelling, e.g. Exo_25:9 R.V. mg. In Exodus 25-27, and in parts of 35–40 the word is used to denote the structure described in 26, 36, and distinguished as the ‘tabernacle’ from the ‘tent over the tabernacle’ (Exo_26:7; Exo_36:14 in R.V.). But in other passages it is used as the equivalent of the ‘tent of meeting’ for the tabernacle with its covering tent. It indicates the place where God dwells among the children of Israel according to His promise (so in Lev_16:16, Lev_26:11 f.; Exo_29:45; cp. Exo_25:8; Num_5:3; Num_35:34), and is used only of the tabernacle1[52] (in the plur., Num_24:5, it is used of Israel in poetical parallelism with ‘tents’). The combination ‘tabernacle of the tent of meeting’ occurs Exo_40:2; Exo_40:6; Exo_40:29†. As the A.V. renders both ‘ohel (see on Lev_1:1) and mishkân by ‘tabernacle,’ the difference does not appear in that version.

[52] The use of the word tabernacle of the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (see McNeile C. B. ad loc. Num_16:24; Num_16:27) is very strange, and the text must be considered doubtful.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And of her that is sick of her flowers,.... Her monthly courses, for these are a sickness, Lev 20:18; and make a woman languid and faint, as the word is rendered, Lam 1:13; or to be in pain (n), as some render it here; and pains are reckoned among the signs of them by the Misnic doctors (o):

and of him that hath an issue, of the man, and of the woman; of both, whether the one or the other:

and of him that lieth with her that is unclean; though her own husband.

(n) "et dolentis", Montanus. (o) Misn. Niddah, c. 9. sect. 8.

Next: Leviticus Chapter 16

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Teach. So the Septuagint also read. Hebrew, "Thus you shall remove....from their filth." (Houbigant) --- Filth. God threatens to kill them, if they approach unclean. (Menochius) --- St. Jerome (in Gal. v.) understands this of those abominable sins, which ought not to be mentioned. (Worthington)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

When they defile my tabernacle; which they did both ceremonially, by coming into it in their uncleanness, and morally, by the gross neglect and contempt of God’s express and positive command to cleanse themselves.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

31. That they die not, when they defile my tabernacle — These words explain the minute requirements of this chapter. Continuance in uncleanness without the prescribed purification was followed by death, not merely in the case of the unclean man venturing into the sanctuary, but also in the case of all who persisted in defiling Israel, called to be a holy nation. The holy Jehovah had condescended to abide in the midst of Israel.

Nothing offensive or uncomely should be suffered within the sacred precincts of his presence. The trifling spot upon the person must be carefully inspected by the official custodians of the holy place. It was because of his holiness that Jehovah exercised the most jealous care over all the habits of his people, at home and abroad, by day and by night. Their food, their clothing, their most hidden privacy, were under his constant inspection. This elaborate code of ceremonialism was perpetually uttering in the ear of the spiritually-minded Hebrew the sublime cry of the seraphim, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

Isa_6:3. To lovers of holiness these restraints would not be irksome, but delightful; while they would be the most intolerable burden to the carnally minded. Thus the Levitical law tested and sifted the Israelites as the requirements of faith in the atoning blood of Christ is the touchstone of character to-day. To the sceptic who declares that this chapter is derogatory to the Divine Being, we reply that it is the office of the Spirit of inspiration to reveal truth by “interpreting spiritual things to spiritual men.”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

When they defile my tabernacle - Both ceremonially, by coming into it in their uncleanness, and morally by the contempt of God's express command to cleanse themselves. The grand reason of all these laws was, to separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness. Hereby they were taught their privilege and honour, that they were purified unto God, a peculiar people; for that was a defilement to them, which was not so to others. They were also taught their duty, which was to keep themselves clean from all pollutions.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

This is how you must separate the people of Israel from their uncleanness

Yahweh speaks of preventing the people from becoming unclean as if it were keeping the people at a safe distance from uncleanness. The abstract noun "uncleanness" can be stated as "unclean." AT: "This is how you must prevent the people of Israel from becoming unclean" (See: Metaphor and Abstract Nouns)

their uncleanness

People whom other people may not touch and who are not acceptable for God's purposes are spoken of as if they were physically unclean. (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

Israel

die

defile

tabernacle

life

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

והזרתם THUS SHALL YE PUT APART [THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL] — The word נזר has wherever it occurs the meaning of "separating". Similar is (Isaiah 1:4) “they are gone away (נזורו) backward"; (Genesis 49:26) “him that was separated from (נזיר) his brethren” (Sifra, Metzora Parashat Zavim, Chapter 9 6).

ולא ימתו בטמאתם THAT THEY DIE NOT IN THEIR UNCLEANNESS [WHEN THEY DEFILE MY TABERNACLE] — Thus you see that the penalty of “excision” to which one who defiles the Holy Place is subject (cf. Numbers 19:13) is here called מיתה (i. e. מיתה בידי שמים) (cf. Sifrei Bamidbar 125).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.