Numbers 5:2

2 “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, [a] anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by 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 Then the LORD said to Moses,
2 “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by a dead body.
3 You must send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them.”
4 So the Israelites did this, sending such people outside the camp. They did just as the LORD had instructed Moses.
5 And the LORD said to Moses,

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Forms of the Hebrew tzaraath, traditionally translated as leprosy, were used for various skin diseases; see Leviticus 13.
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