Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 12:2
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and borne a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.
2. Compare Gen 17:12; Exo 22:29-30; Luk 1:59; Php 3:5. Reference is here made to the regulation of Lev 15:19.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 2. If a woman have conceived] In the extent mentioned here the ordinances of this chapter have little relation to us: and to inquire into their physical reasons, as far as they related to the Jews, could afford but little edification; and to make such a subject sufficiently plain would require such minute examination and circumstantial detail as could scarcely be proper for several readers. All that is necessary to be said the reader will find on Le 12:4.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
From uncleanness contracted by the touching or eating of external things, he now comes to that uncleanness which ariseth from ourselves.
She shall be unclean; not for any filthiness which was either in the conception or in bringing forth, but to signify the universal and deep pollution of mans nature even from the birth, and from the conception. For
seven days, or thereabouts, nature is employed in the purgation of most women.
For her infirmity, i.e. for her monthly infirmity. And it may note an agreement therewith not only in the time, Lev 15:19, but in the degree of uncleanness, which was such that she defiled every thing she touched, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. If a woman, c.The motherof a boy was ceremonially unclean for a week, at the end of which thechild was circumcised (Gen 17:12Rom 4:11-13); the mother ofa girl for two weeks (Le 12:5)a stigma on the sex (1Ti 2:14;1Ti 2:15) for sin, which wasremoved by Christ; everyone who came near her during that timecontracted a similar defilement. After these periods, visitors mightapproach her though she was still excluded from the public ordinancesof religion [Le 12:4].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Speak unto the children of Israel,…. For this law only concerned them, and not other nations of the world:
if a woman have conceived seed; by lying with a man, and so becomes pregnant, and goes on with her pregnancy until she brings forth a child. The Jews from hence gather, that this law respects abortions; that if a woman has conceived and miscarries, eighty one days after the birth of a female, and forty one after a male, she must bring her offering m; but the law seems only to regard such as are with child, and proceed to the due time of childbirth, whether then the child is born alive or dead:
and born a man child; which is, generally speaking, not only matter of joy to the mother, but to the whole family, see Joh 16:21: then she shall be unclean seven days; be separate from all company, except those whose presence is necessary to take care of her in her circumstances, and do what is proper for her, and even these became ceremonially unclean thereby; yea, her husband was not permitted to sit near her, nor to eat and drink with her:
according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean; the same number of days, even seven, she was unclean on account of childbirth, as she was for her monthly courses, called here an infirmity or sickness, incident to all females when grown up, at which time they were separate from all persons; and the case was the same with a new mother; see Le 15:14.
m Misn. Ceritot, c. 1. sect. 6. Maimon. & Bartenora, in ib.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
2. If a woman have conceived seed. This ceremony had reference to two points; for, first, the Jews were reminded by it of the common corruption of our nature; and secondly, the remedy of the evil was set before them. There is little difficulty in understanding why a woman who has conceived and given birth to a child, should be pronounced unclean; viz., because the whole race of Adam is polluted and defiled, so that the woman already contracts uncleanness from the offspring which she bears in the womb, and is further contaminated by giving it birth. Hence it appears how foul and disgusting in God’s sight is our condition, since at our birth, and even before it, we infect our mothers. It has been almost universally, but very absurdly, considered that nothing is here condemned but libidinous intercourse between male and female; whereas the purification is not required except there be offspring; and to this the word תזריע, thazriang, refers, which can only be properly translated by insemination, and therefore it must be carefully observed that impurity in intercourse is not generally condemned here, but in generation. For the cohabitation of man and woman in itself, without reference to offspring, is a matter of shame and indecency; but here the procreation of children, which should remove this indecency, is accounted the cause of pollution, because the whole race of Adam is full of contagion. Hence the error of Pelagius (341) is clearly refuted, who denied that the sin of Adam was propagated among his descendants, and pretended that we contracted sin from our parents not by origin, but by imitation. For the mother would not be unclean if the children were pure and free from all defilement. Therefore God would by this rite teach His ancient, people that all men are born accursed, and bring into the world with them an hereditary corruption which pollutes their very mothers. If any object that holy matrimony is thus brought into disgrace and disrepute, the reply is easy, that if the marriage couch is free from stain, it is due to the indulgence of God. When therefore the husband and wife procreate children in lawful wedlock, it is not to be considered simply permitted, as if the generation were altogether without impurity, but by special privilege and indulgence; because the sanctity of marriage covers what otherwise might be imputed to blame, and purifies the very defilements of our guilty nature. Whence it is plain that marriage, through which the procreation of children becomes lawful, has nothing disgraceful about it. Yet it does not follow that the children who are thus engendered are holy and free from stain; for those who are born to unbelievers, remain under the guilt of the curse; and those who owe their birth to believers, are delivered from the common perdition by supernatural grace, and special adoption. And this God desired openly and distinctly to testify, by requiring a sacrifice for their purification. For although Moses seems only to speak of the mother, St. Luke, (342) his faithful interpreter, includes also the infant. If it be asked whether circumcision would not suffice to remove the stain of corrupt nature, I reply that hence it more clearly appears how great is our impurity, since God was not content with one symbol for its expurgation, but in order that He might exercise His people in continual meditation upon it, added another subsidiary sign, and did this especially because He knew how profound is men’s hypocrisy, with what self-complacency they flatter themselves in vice, how difficult it is to humble their pride, and, when they are forced to acknowledge their miseries, how easily forgetfulness creeps over them. Wherefore, when circumcision is expressly mentioned here, I presume it is by anticipation, lest the Israelites should object that circumcision was given them for the very purpose of altogether removing the curse; and therefore God signifies that, although circumcision should precede it, still the purification which He here enjoins would not be superfluous. The foolish comments of the Rabbins on this passage respecting seed, are both ridiculous in themselves, and unfitted by their filthiness for modest ears; since, as we have said, the simple intention of Moses was that the woman should undergo purification, if offspring should follow her intercourse. Now, since the Son of God, although He was not only pure, but purity itself, still was the representative of the human race, He subjected himself to the Law; and (as Paul teaches) submitted Himself to the Law, “to redeem them that were under the Law.” ( Gal 3:13) And, by this His voluntary submission to it, He abrogated the old rite; so that it is not now necessary to bring infants to the visible tabernacle with the sacrifices, but all purity is to be sought in Himself.
(341) Une heretique ancien nomme Pelage. — Fr.
(342) The allusion is, I suppose, to Luk 2:23.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) If a woman have conceived seed.Rather, if a woman bringeth forth seed, that is, is delivered of a child. (See Gen. 1:11-12; Gen. 1:29.) This general statement is afterwards specified by the phrases and born a man child, and bear a maid child, in the verse before us, and in Lev. 12:5. Thus the regulations about impurity naturally begin with the beginning of life. According to the administrators of the law during the second Temple, the regulations here set forth with regard to the deliverance are in force even when it is an untimely birth, or when the child is born dead, provided it has a perfect shape, which it assumes after forty days of its conception. Amongst the Hindoos, too, the mother in case of a miscarriage remains in a state of defilement as many nights as months have elapsed since her conception.
And born a man child.Better, and giveth birth to a male child. The expression rendered here in the Authorised Version by a man child is translated in Lev. 12:7 simply male. In so short a paragraph discussing the same enactment it is important that words identical in the original should be translated uniformly in English.
She shall be unclean seven days.Though the issue of blood which succeeds child-birth generally only lasts three or four days, yet the period of uncleanness is extended to seven days to include exceptional cases.
According to the days . . . . Better, as in the days of the uncleanness of her monthly courses, that is, her uncleanness is to be of the same duration, and she is to observe the same rules, and be subjected to the same restraints as during the period of her menstruation. (See Lev. 15:19.) The fact that reference is here made to the regulations about the periodical impurity of women which have not as yet been laid down shows that, like other laws, this law was already known to and generally practised by the Jews before it was finally fixed in the Levitical code.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
“Speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a woman conceive seed, and bear a man-child, then she shall be unclean seven days, as in the days of the impurity of her sickness shall she be unclean.”
Firstly it is emphasised that the woman who gave birth was to be seen as unclean ‘for seven days’, as she was in the case of menstruation (the days of her impurity – see Lev 15:19, another case where a sacrifice was also required). After all similar blood flows came from her in both cases. The flow of blood was a constant reminder of the woman’s mortality. It also rendered her untouchable at the time, especially by men.
Whether it was seen as a reminder of prospective death, only averted by the later intended sacrifice, or whether rather it was seen as indicating that the woman was in an ‘imperfect’ and life diminishing state, and therefore at the time a blemished state, is something that cannot be demonstrated. But clearly she was seen as at that time ‘not her whole self’, and in no condition to approach God. Through childbirth she was undergoing the consequences of the fall afresh. She was unclean.
So a divinely perfect period, seven days (or for a girl twice seven days), the number of days connected with creation, was to be allowed for her first recovery. It was a period of severe uncleanness. She was enduring all the consequences of the fall. The number seven was a number used of divinely perfect and completed activity, and ‘seven days’ was the period of creation, Thus it may here have been seen as being in order that God might do His re-creating work in restoring her. Or it may simply be because seven was for all nations seen as a divine number of completeness. And it was after all in a sense already prescribed for in the covenant of circumcision (Gen 17:10-14). It fitted in with circumcising a boy child on the eighth day.
This period then emphasised man’s fallen state. During this period of serious uncleanness the woman would be left relatively alone, helped only by those women (such as her mother) who were prepared to become unclean by helping her. And the child too would be unclean, if only because of contact with its mother. But at the end of the seven days, in the case of a boy, the severe uncleanness would be seen as at an end, to be followed on the eighth day with a ceremony in which blood was spilt, and in which the child was welcomed into the people of God. Hopefully by this stage the blood flow would have ceased, to be followed by the continuing discharge of lockia which would not be seen as outwardly as serious, and therefore was seen as occurring in a period of lesser uncleanness.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Lev 12:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.
Ver. 2. If a woman have conceived seed. ] Or yielded seed, as Gen 1:11 . Urgendum hoc adversus Anabaptistas; qui, ut suos de humanae Christi naturae origine errores stabiliant, faeminas semen habere praefracte negant. a Hebraeorum magistri, ex eodem loco, Gen 1:11-12 colligunt marem edi quoties mulier semen mittere prior coeperit; foeminam, ubi vir. b
Then she shall be unclean.
a Amama, Antibarbar, 575.
b Gatak. cont. Pfochen.
c Augustine.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
children. Hebrew sons.
seven days. See note on Lev 12:5.
according to the days. Compare Lev 15:19.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
If a woman: Gen 1:28, Gen 3:16, Job 14:4, Job 15:14, Job 25:4, Psa 51:5, Luk 2:22, Rom 5:12-19
according: Lev 15:19
Reciprocal: Exo 29:30 – seven days Lev 9:1 – the eighth day Lev 12:5 – General Lev 22:27 – seven days 2Sa 11:4 – purified Luk 2:24 – A pair
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lev 12:2. Seven days Not for any filthiness which was either in the conception, or in bringing forth, but to signify the universal and deep pollution of mans nature, even from the birth, and from the conception. Seven days, or thereabouts, nature is employed in the purgation of most women. Her infirmity Her monthly infirmity. And it may note an agreement therewith not only in the time, (Lev 15:19,) but in the degree of uncleanness.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
12:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean {a} seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.
(a) So that her husband for that time could not have relations with her.