Leviticus 12

Le 12:1-8.

WOMAN'S

UNCLEANNESS BY

CHILDBIRTH.

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

(Ge 17:12;

Ro 4:11-13);

the mother of a girl for two weeks

(Le 12:5)

--a stigma on the sex

(1Ti 2:14, 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

[Le 12:4].

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.

8. bring two turtles, &c.--(See on

Le 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

(Lu 2:22-24).