Leviticus 21

Le 21:1-24.

OF THE

PRIESTS'

MOURNING.

1. There shall none be defiled for the dead among his

people--The obvious design of the regulations contained in this

chapter was to keep inviolate the purity and dignity of the sacred

office. Contact with a corpse, or even contiguity to the place where it

lay, entailing ceremonial defilement

(Nu 19:14),

all mourners were debarred from the tabernacle for a week; and as the

exclusion of a priest during that period would have been attended with

great inconvenience, the whole order were enjoined to abstain from all

approaches to the dead, except at the funerals of relatives, to whom

affection or necessity might call them to perform the last offices.

Those exceptional cases, which are specified, were strictly confined to

the members of their own family, within the nearest degrees of

kindred.

4. But he shall not defile himself--"for any other," as the

sense may be fully expressed. "The priest, in discharging his sacred

functions, might well be regarded as a chief man among his people, and

"chief man" signifies also "a husband"; and the sense according to

others is, "But he being a husband, shall not defile himself by the

obsequies of a wife"

(Eze 44:25).

5. They shall not make baldness upon their heads . . . nor

. . . cuttings in their flesh--The superstitious marks

of sorrow, as well as the violent excesses in which the heathen

indulged at the death of their friends, were forbidden by a general law

to the Hebrew people

(Le 19:28).

But the priests were to be laid under a special injunction, not only

that they might exhibit examples of piety in the moderation of their

grief, but also by the restraint of their passions, be the better

qualified to administer the consolations of religion to others, and

show, by their faith in a blessed resurrection, the reasons for

sorrowing not as those who have no hope.

7-9. They shall not take a wife that is a whore, or

profane--Private individuals might form several connections, which

were forbidden as inexpedient or improper in priests. The

respectability of their office, and the honor of religion, required

unblemished sanctity in their families as well as themselves, and

departures from it in their case were visited with severer punishment

than in that of others.

10-15. he that is the high priest among his brethren . . .

shall not uncover his head, nor rend his clothes--The indulgence in

the excepted cases of family bereavement, mentioned above

[Le 21:2, 3],

which was granted to the common priests, was denied to him; for his

absence from the sanctuary for the removal of any contracted defilement

could not have been dispensed with, neither could he have acted as

intercessor for the people, unless ceremonially clean. Moreover, the

high dignity of his office demanded a corresponding superiority in

personal holiness, and stringent rules were prescribed for the purpose

of upholding the suitable dignity of his station and family. The same

rules are extended to the families of Christian ministers

(1Ti 3:2;

Tit 1:6).

16-24. Whosoever he be . . . hath any blemish, let him not

approach to offer the bread of his God--As visible things exert a

strong influence on the minds of men, any physical infirmity or

malformation of body in the ministers of religion, which disturbs the

associations or excites ridicule, tends to detract from the weight and

authority of the sacred office. Priests laboring under any personal

defect were not allowed to officiate in the public service; they might

be employed in some inferior duties about the sanctuary but could not

perform any sacred office. In all these regulations for preserving the

unsullied purity of the sacred character and office, there was a

typical reference to the priesthood of Christ

(Heb 7:26).