Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 5:2

Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead:

2. Three forms of uncleanness are here mentioned, all of which are dealt with in detail elsewhere, and all are considered contagious in their ceremonial pollution: leprosy (Leviticus 13), discharges (Leviticus 15), and contact with the dead (Numbers 19).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Num 5:2-3

Put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead.

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Where God dwells there must be purity:

I. God himself is pure, and cannot associate with the impure. If discipline is lax, God departs. It is not the large church, or the intelligent or the wealthy one, that attracts Him, but the pure one. As the lightning passes by the polished marble and the carved wood to touch the iron or steel, because there it finds something akin to itself, so God passes by those to dwell with the pure, because in them He finds a character akin to His own.

II. God will not, because he cannot, do any good to the impure. Any one tolerating sin would not appreciate the design of God and accept His blessing; and where He cannot bless, He will not come to dwell. Let us then put out of the camp every leper, everything that defileth; for the presence of God in our midst is of the utmost importance to us as His Church and people. His presence is essential.

1. To our comfort as Churches and Christians. What the shining sun is in nature His presence is with us–our brightness, our joy, &c.

2. To our prosperity. God with His Church has been in all ages the secret of its power and success. His presence is the life of the ministry and of all Christian work (D. Lloyd.)

The exclusion of the unclean:

I. As a sanitary measure.

1. The universal application of the rule.

2. The sacred reason by which it was enforced. Impurity separates from God.

II. As a spiritual parable.

1. Sin is a defiling thing.

2. Sin is a deadly thing.

3. Sin is a separating thing.

Where sin is cherished God will not dwell.

(1) The openly and persistently wicked should be expelled from the Church on earth.

(a) Because of their corrupt influence (1Co 5:6-13).

(b) Because of the dishonour to God which their presence in the Church involves.

(2) The wicked will be excluded from the city of God above.

Conclusion:

1. He who demands this purity has provided the means whereby we may attain unto it. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.

2. Let us diligently use the means which He has provided. Wash you, make you clean, &c. (W. Jones.)

In the midst whereof I dwell—

God ever present with His people

This teaches us that God is evermore present with His people. This appeareth in the example of Joseph (Gen 39:21; Gen 39:23). I will propound a few reasons.

1. He will save those that are His. His presence is not a vain presence, neither is He an idle beholder of things that are done; but His presence is to prosper and to save (Jer 30:11). We must not therefore dream of a presence that effecteth nothing, but rather willeth His people oftentimes to stand still, while He worketh all in all.

2. They have good success in their lawful labours, so that He maketh the works of their hands prosperous.

Uses:

1. For the increase of a sound faith in God. He leaveth them not to themselves; He with-draweth not His strength from them; He delivereth them not to the lust and pleasure of their enemies. This is it which He telleth Joshua after the death of Moses (Jdg 1:5).

2. This teacheth us this good duty, that we take heed we do not defile ourselves with the pollutions of sin. For how shall we dare to commit sin that is so highly displeasing in His sight, forasmuch as He is with us to behold us and all our actions? (W. Attersoll.)

God dwelling with His people:

I. God is present with his people.

1. Influentially (Psa 139:1; Psa 139:10).

2. Sympathetically (Gen 28:16-17; Joh 14:16-26; 1Jn 1:3).

II. God is present in the midst of his people.

1. As to the centre of union.

2. As the source of blessing. Life, light, power, beauty, &c.

III. Gods presence in the midst of his people should exert a great and blessed influence upon them.

1. A restraint from sin.

2. An incentive to holiness.

3. An encouragement to duty.

4. An assurance of support in the toils and trials of life.

5. An assurance of victory in the conflicts of life.

6. An assurance of perfect salvation. (W. Jones.)

The presence of God among His people demands holiness on their part

Redemption was the basis of Gods dwelling in the midst of His people. But we must remember that discipline was essential to His continuance amongst them. He could not dwell where evil was deliberately sanctioned. It may, however, be said, in reply, Does not God the Holy Ghost dwell in the individual believer, and yet there is much evil in him? True, the Holy Ghost dwells in the believer, on the ground of accomplished redemption. He is there, not as the sanction of what is of nature, but as the seal of what is of Christ; and His presence and fellowship are enjoyed just in proportion as the evil in us is habitually judged. So also in reference to the assembly. No doubt, there is evil there–evil in each individual member, and therefore evil in the body corporate. But it must be judged; and, if judged, it is not allowed to act, it is rendered null. We are not to judge motives, but we are to judge ways. The very moment a man enters the assembly, he takes his place in that sphere where discipline is exercised upon ever, thing contrary to the holiness of the One who dwells there. And let not the reader suppose, for a moment, that the unity of the body is touched when the discipline of the house is maintained. We frequently hear it said of those who rightly seek to maintain the discipline of the house of God, that they are rending the body of Christ. There could hardly be a greater mistake. The fact is, the former is our bounden duty; the latter, an utter impossibility. The discipline of Gods house must be carried out; but the unity of Christs body can never be dissolved. And why, we may ask, was this separation demanded? Was it to uphold the reputation or respectability of the people? Nothing of the sort. What then? That they defile not their camps in the midst whereof I dwell. And so is it now. We do not judge and put away bad doctrine, in order to maintain our orthodoxy; neither do we judge and put away moral evil, in order to maintain our reputation and respectability. The only ground of judgment and putting away is this, Holiness becometh Thine house, O Lord, forever. God dwells in the midst of His people. (C. H. Mackintosh.)

No Church ought to tolerate open offenders:

No Church ought to tolerate any filthy livers, or unclean persons, or notorious offenders among them (Deu 23:17; 1Co 5:1-2; Eph 5:3-5). This truth may be further strengthened by many reasons.

1. For it is a comely thing for the saints of God to do so: that as they differ from heathen men, so they may differ from heathen meetings. Moses teacheth that they ought to put out evil from them, because they are an holy people (Deu 23:14).

2. For the neglect of this duty, the wrath of God falleth upon the sons of men. He is the God of order, and requireth that all things in the Church be done in order. Hence it is that the apostle saith (Col 3:6). And we have sundry examples of this in the people of Israel, who were diversely destroyed because of their sins (1Co 10:5).

3. We showed before that they were as unclean beasts, and should not be admitted to the fellowship of Christs sheep which are clean, lest they defile them through their contagion, and tread down with their feet the residue of their pastures. The apostle saith (1Co 5:6). Sin therefore being infectious, the sinner is not to be tolerated in the assembly of the righteous.

Uses:

1. It should minister great matter of much sorrow to every society of Christian men and women, when any of the congregation grow to be thus profane and defiled with the contagion of sin. Is it not a great grief to have any one member of the body cut off? This the apostle teacheth (1Co 5:2.)

2. It is a cause of great mercy and of a wonderful blessing from God, when such as transgress are resisted and punished. So long as sin is suffered, God is offended, and His wrath is extended over those places and persons. He hath a controversy against those that sin against Him.

3. Every congregation is bound to purge their own body from such excrements and filthiness as annoy it. We must have herein true zeal and godly courage in the cause of God and His truth. We must not stand in fear of the faces of men, though they be never so great and mighty. The censures of the Church must not be like the spiders web, which catcheth flies and gnats, whereas the bigger creatures break from it. This reproveth such as dare not deal with great men, rich men, and mighty men: they are afraid to touch them lest they purchase their displeasure.

4. Is no Church to tolerate any open offenders among them? Then they must use the censure of excommunication as an ordinance of God, not an invention of men; and not only know the nature and use of it, but practise it to the glory of God, and to the good of others. This is it which our Saviour Christ hath left and commanded to be executed among us (Mat 18:17). (W. Attersoll.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 2. Put out of the camp every leper] According to the preceding plan, it is sufficiently evident that each camp had a space behind it, and on one side, whither the infected might be removed, and where probably convenient places were erected for the accommodation of the infected; for we cannot suppose that they were driven out into the naked wilderness. But the expulsion mentioned here was founded,

1. On a purely physical reason, viz., the diseases were contagious, and therefore there was a necessity of putting those afflicted by them apart, that the infection might not be communicated.

2. There was also a spiritual reason; the camp was the habitation of God, and nothing impure should be permitted to remain where he dwelt.

3. The camp was an emblem of the Church, where nothing that is defiled should enter, and in which nothing that is unholy should be tolerated. All lepers – all persevering impenitent sinners, should be driven from the sacred pale, nor should any such ever be permitted to enter.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Out of the camp, in which the people dwelt; as afterward out of the cities and towns, that they might not converse with others, and infect them.

An issue, to wit, of genital seed in men, or of blood in women in their seasons.

By the dead, i.e. by the touch of the dead. See Lev 21:1; Num 6:6.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

2. Command the children of Israel,that they put out of the camp every leperThe exclusion ofleprous persons from the camp in the wilderness, as from cities andvillages afterwards, was a sanitary measure taken according toprescribed rules (Le13:1-14:57). This exclusion of lepers from society has been actedupon ever since; and it affords almost the only instance in which anykind of attention is paid in the East to the prevention of contagion.The usage still more or less prevails in the East among people who donot think the least precaution against the plague or choleranecessary; but judging from personal observation, we think that inAsia the leprosy has now much abated in frequency and virulence. Itusually appears in a comparatively mild form in Egypt, Palestine, andother countries where the disorder is, or was, endemic. Smallsocieties of excluded lepers live miserably in paltry huts. Many ofthem are beggars, going out into the roads to solicit alms, whichthey receive in a wooden bowl; charitable people also sometimes bringdifferent articles of food, which they leave on the ground at a shortdistance from the hut of the lepers, for whom it is intended. Theyare generally obliged to wear a distinctive badge that people mayknow them at first sight and be warned to avoid them. Other meanswere adopted among the ancient Jews by putting their hand on theirmouth and crying, “Unclean, unclean” [Le13:45]. But their general treatment, as to exclusion fromsociety, was the same as now described. The association of thelepers, however, in this passage, with those who were subject only toceremonial uncleanness, shows that one important design in thetemporary exile of such persons was to remove all impurities thatreflected dishonor on the character and residence of Israel’s King.And this vigilant care to maintain external cleanliness in the peoplewas typically designed to teach them the practice of moral purity, orcleansing themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Theregulations made for ensuring cleanliness in the camp suggest theadoption of similar means for maintaining purity in the church. Andalthough, in large communities of Christians, it may be oftendifficult or delicate to do this, the suspension or, in flagrantcases of sin, the total excommunication of the offender from theprivileges and communion of the church is an imperative duty, asnecessary to the moral purity of the Christian as the exclusion ofthe leper from the camp was to physical health and ceremonial purityin the Jewish church.

Nu5:5-10. RESTITUTIONENJOINED.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Command the children of Israel,…. Not as from himself, but from the Lord; deliver out the following as a command of his, to which obedience was required of all the children of Israel:

that they put out of the camp every leper; there were three camps, Jarchi says, in the time of their encampment; between the curtains was the camp of the Shechinah, or the divine Majesty; the encampment of the Levites round about; and from thence to the end was the camp of the standards, to the four winds, which was the camp of Israel; and the leper was to be put out of them all; so Ben Gersom; see Le 13:46;

and everyone that hath an issue; a gonorrhoea, man or woman, see

Le 15:2; according Jarchi, such an one might be in the camp of Israel, but was to be put out of the other two camps:

and whosoever is defiled by the dead; by attending the funerals of the dead, or touching them, see Le 21:1; such an one might go into the camp of the Levites, according to Jarchi and Ben Gersom; and was to be put of none but the camp of the Shechinah, or the tabernacle; but the camp of Israel seems to be meant of them all, out of which they were to be put, as an emblem of the rejection of all impure persons out of the church of God.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

2. Command the children of Israel. This passage clearly shews that God, in desiring the lepers to be put out of the camp, was not acting as a physician by any means, and merely consulting the health of the people: but that by this external rite and ceremony He exercised them in the pursuit of purity; for, by joining with the lepers those who had an issue, (2) and who were defiled by the dead, He instructs the people simply to keep away from all uncleanness. The reason, which follows, confirms this, — “that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof He dwells.” It is just as if He had said, that all the habitations of His elect people were parts of His sanctuary, which it was a shame to defile with any pollution. For we know what license men give themselves in corrupting (3) the service of God, by mixing, as the proverb says, sacred things with profane. Thus we see that the very worst of men boast themselves to be anything but the least zealous of His worshipers, and spare not to lift up polluted hands, although God so sternly repudiates them. It was, then, profitable that the ancient people should be reminded by this visible proof, that all those who are defiled cannot duly serve God, but that they rather pollute. with their filthiness what is otherwise holy, and thus grossly abuse religious exercises; and again, that they ought not tobe tolerated in the holy congregation, lest their infection should spread to others. Let us now briefly examine Lev 13:0

(2) Seminifiuos — Lat.

(3) Brouiller et abastardlir — Fr.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

2. Every leper A discussion of leprosy may be found in Leviticus 13. It was considered a punishment from God. The very term “leper,” in Hebrew etymology, signifies one “struck.” The Greek poet AEschylus ( Choeph., 271) portrays it as the scourge of an offended deity. It is the opinion of scientific men that the leprosy, the diagnosis of which is given in Leviticus xiii and xiv, includes all severe diseases spreading on the surface of the body in the way described, as syphilis, elephantiasis, and cancer. Leprosy proper, common in Egypt and Syria, begins imperceptibly with a few reddish, painless spots, gradually increasing for some years, and becoming more manifest. The spots become large, covering the entire skin; sometimes raised, though flat. The upper part of the nose swells and softens, the nostrils distend, the under jaw swells, the eyebrows are elevated, the ears grow thick, the ends of the fingers and toes swell, the nails grow scaly, the joints of the feet and hands separate, and the palms and soles become ulcerated. This kind is supposed by some not to be infectious. In Egypt and Palestine it was endemic in a mild form.

Every one that hath an issue See notes on Lev 15:2-33, where it is called a running issue. The separation enjoined was admirably adapted to prevent contagion of every kind, and to repress licentious indulgences.

Defiled by the dead The Hebrew has , nephesh; and the Greek , psyche, spirit or soul, instead of the usual word for dead. In Lev 21:11, and Num 6:6, the Hebrew adds , meth, dead. This was a ceremonial, and not a physical or contagious, defilement. Actual touch was not necessary for defilement, but touching a grave, bearing the dead, or entering a tent or house where there was a corpse. Note, Num 19:11-18. The reason of the defilement attributed to a dead body is not assigned. It may be on account of its speedy decomposition in a hot climate.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Num 5:2. That they put out of the camp Le Clerc conjectures, that the camp of each tribe had some vacant space left, which was reckoned without the camp, and that here the unclean were lodged by themselves; for that they were banished quite beyond the bounds of all the tents, at a great distance from all their friends and relations, appears less probable. “These legal pollutions,” says Ainsworth, “figured our pollution by sin; and the removing of such out of the Lord’s camp, figured the removal of unrepenting sinners out of the church triumphant, into which shall in no wise enter any thing that defileth.” Rev 21:27. Isa 52:1.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Num 5:2 Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead:

Ver. 2. Put out of the camp. ] To show, that sin unrepented of, throws us out of the communion of faith and saints; shuts us out of the congregation of God in earth and heaven. No fellowship, place, or reward with them. See Rev 21:27 . See Trapp on “ Rev 21:27 “

Defiled by the dead. ] Heb., Defiled by a soul. The Hebrews call a dead corpse Nephesh here, and elsewhere; that is, a soul, to note that it shall live again, and that the soul shall return to it. The heathene also (saith a grave interpreter) called a dead body a soul: possibly from some glimpse of the resurrection.

a Animamque sepulchro condimus – Virg., Aeneid.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)