Numbers 5:2

2 "Command the sons of Israel that they 1send away from the camp every leper and everyone having a 2discharge and everyone who is 3unclean because of a dead person.

Numbers 5:2 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 5:2

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 ( Leviticus 13:46 ) ;

and everyone that hath an issue;
a gonorrhoea, man or woman, see ( Leviticus 15:2 Leviticus 15:19 ) ; 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 ( Leviticus 21:1 ) ( 22:4 ) ; 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.

Numbers 5:2 In-Context

1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
2 "Command the sons of Israel that they send away from the camp every leper and everyone having a discharge and everyone who is unclean because of a dead person.
3 "You shall send away both male and female; you shall send them outside the camp so that they will not defile their camp where I dwell in their midst."
4 The sons of Israel did so and sent them outside the camp; just as the LORD had spoken to Moses, thus the sons of Israel did.
5 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

Cross References 3

  • 1. Leviticus 13:8, 46; Num 12:10, 14, 15
  • 2. Leviticus 15:2
  • 3. Leviticus 21:1; Numbers 9:6-10; Numbers 19:11
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