Numbers 5:2

2 "Command the Isra- elites to send away from camp anyone with a harmful skin disease. Send away anyone who gives off body fluid or who has become unclean by touching a dead body.

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 The Lord said to Moses,
2 "Command the Isra- elites to send away from camp anyone with a harmful skin disease. Send away anyone who gives off body fluid or who has become unclean by touching a dead body.
3 Send both men and women outside the camp so that they won't spread the disease there, where I am living among you."
4 So Israel obeyed the Lord's command and sent those people outside the camp. They did just as the Lord had told Moses.
5 The Lord said to Moses,
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.