Leviticus 10:10

10 so as to make a separation between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the pure;

Leviticus 10:10 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 10:10

And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy,
&c.] That being sober they might be able to distinguish between the one and the other; which a drunken man, having his mind and senses disturbed, is not capable of; as between holy and unholy persons, and between holy and unholy things; particularly, as Aben Ezra interprets it, between a sacred place and one that is common, and between a holy day and a common week day; the knowledge and memory of which may be lost through intemperance; and so that may be done in a place and on a day which ought not to be done, or that omitted on a day and in a place which ought to be done:

and between unclean and clean;
between unclean men and women, beasts and fowls, and clean ones; and between unclean things in a ceremonial sense, and those that are clean, which a man in liquor may be no judge of: hence, as the above writer observes, after this section follow laws concerning fowls clean and unclean, the purification of a woman after childbirth, the leprosy in men, garments and houses, and concerning profluvious and menstruous persons; all which the priests were to be judges of, and therefore ought to be sober.

Leviticus 10:10 In-Context

8 And Jehovah speaketh unto Aaron, saying,

9 `Wine and strong drink thou dost not drink, thou, and thy sons with thee, in your going in unto the tent of meeting, and ye die not -- a statute age-during to your generations;

10 so as to make a separation between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the pure;

11 and to teach the sons of Israel all the statutes which Jehovah hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses.'

12 And Moses speaketh unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar, and unto Ithamar his sons, who are left, `Take ye the present that is left from the fire-offerings of Jehovah, and eat it unleavened near the altar, for it [is] most holy,