Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Haggai 2:13
Then said Haggai, If [one that is] unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.
13. unclean by a dead body ] Lit. unclean by a person. The full phrase, “ a dead person, or body,” occurs Lev 21:11; Num 6:6; but the word “dead” is often left to be understood as here and Lev 21:1; Lev 22:4. The law of ceremonial uncleanness as attaching to death (under which there lay, no doubt, the moral idea that death polluted because it was the offspring and the wages of sin) is found in Num 19:11-22.
shall it be unclean? ] as clearly laid down in Num 19:22. Compare, for the moral counterpart, Jas 2:10, where Dean Plumptre observes: “This seems at first of the nature of an ethical paradox, but practically it states a deep moral truth. If we wilfully transgress one commandment we shew that in principle we sit loose to all. It is but accident, or fear, or the absence of temptation, that prevents our transgressing them also. Actual transgression in one case involves potential transgression in all.” Camb. Bible for Schools, St James, p. 68.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Now the second case is proposed for resolution, &c.
If one that is unclean; ceremonially or legally polluted, and unclean.
By a dead body; for such touch, though at unawares, did pollute, Num 19:13.
Touch any of these; bread or pottage, wine, or oil, or meat.
Shall it be unclean? shall that which the unclean (by touch of the dead) doth touch become unclean, or no? Though a mediate touch of what is holy will not make holy, yet will not a mediate touch of what is polluted defile whatsoever it toucheth?
It shall be unclean; it is resolved affirmatively, It shall be polluted.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. On the other hand, a legally”unclean” person imparts his uncleanness to any thing,whereas a legally holy thing cannot confer its sanctity on an”unclean” person (Num 19:11;Num 19:13; Num 19:22).Legal sanctity is not so readily communicated as legal impurity. Sothe paths to sin are manifold: the paths to holiness one, and thatone of difficult access [GROTIUS].One drop of filth will defile a vase of water: many drops of waterwill not purity a vase of filth [MOORE].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then said Haggai,…. To the priests; having nothing to object to their answer; but being satisfied with it, he puts another question:
if [one that is] unclean by a dead body; by the touch of it,
Nu 19:11:
touch any of these, shall it be unclean? that is, if such an impure person, who was so in a ceremonial sense, should touch any of the above things, bread, pottage, wine, or oil, or any meat, would not they become unclean thereby, and so not fit for use?
and the priests answered and said, it shall be unclean; which was rightly answered; for whatsoever such an unclean person touched was unclean, according to the law, Le 19:22. Pollution is more easily and more extensively conveyed than holiness.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(13) Unclean.The defilement incurred by contact with a dead body was one of the deepest. (See Num. 19:11-16.) On the force of the term tm nephesh, compare the passages Lev. 21:11; Lev. 22:4; Num. 6:6.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Hag 2:13 Then said Haggai, If [one that is] unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.
Ver. 13. If one that is unclean by a dead body ] With a ceremonial uncleanness. The Hebrew hath it thus, If one that is unclean in soul, that is, in his whole person, as every wicked man is totus totus pollutus, wholly covered with corruption, a loathsome leper from head to foot, wholly set upon sin, as Exo 32:22 , lying down in wickedness, or in that wicked one, 1Jn 5:19 , sick of such a disease as the physicians call corruptionem totius substantiae, nay, dead in sins and trespasses, Eph 2:1 ; and can therefore do no better than dead work at best, Heb 9:14 , such as the living God will not be served with. See Trapp on “ Mal 3:16 “ doct. 4, use 1. He is unclean, unclean, and impureth all that he toucheth, according to that which followeth.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
by = by [touching].
dead body = soul. Hebrew. nephesh. See App-13. where see thirteen passages in which nephesh is used of a “dead soul” in distinction from a “living soul”, as in Gen 2:7. Reference to Pentateuch. App-92.
unclean. Ref to Pentateuch (Lev 22:4, Lev 22:6).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Num 5:2, Num 5:3, Num 9:6-10, Num 19:11-22
Reciprocal: Lev 5:2 – touch Lev 12:4 – General Lev 22:6 – General Num 19:22 – whatsoever Jos 7:12 – they were Isa 52:11 – touch Tit 1:15 – but
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hag 2:13, The ceremonial law re- garded a dead body as unclean and everything that touched it was so. Even the people in gene ral knew or had known that such was the stipulation in their instructions that came from the Lord through Moses.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
A second question was, if someone who has become unclean, for example by touching a corpse, touches food of any kind, will the food become unclean? The answer was, yes it would become unclean. The Mosaic Law taught that moral uncleanness could be transmitted, but moral cleanness could not (cf. Lev 6:18; Lev 22:4-6; Num 19:11-16). The same principle applies, by the way, in the area of physical health today. A sick person can transmit his or her illness to healthy people and make them sick, but a healthy person cannot transmit his or her health to sick people and make them well.
"The long disobedience of the nation rendered their work unprofitable before God." [Note: The New Scofield Reference Bible, p. 962.]