John Wesley

You shall not go outside the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, or you will die, for the LORD’s anointing oil is on you.” So they did as Moses instructed.

“Ye shall not go from the tabernacle - Where at this time they were, because this happened within seven days of their consecration.”

And you and your sons and daughters may eat the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the contribution in a ceremonially clean place, because these portions have…

“In a clean place - In any of your dwellings, or any place in the camp, which was kept clean from all ceremonial defilement.”

Later, Moses searched carefully for the goat of the sin offering, and behold, it had been burned up. He was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s remaining sons, and asked,

“He was angry with Eleazar - He spares Aaron at this time, as overwhelmed with sorrow, and because the rebuking him before his sons might have exposed him to some contempt; but he knew that the reproof though directed to them, would concern him too.”

“Why didn’t you eat the sin offering in the holy place? For it is most holy; it was given to you to take away the guilt of the congregation by…

“God hath given it to you - As a reward of your service, whereby you expiate, bear, and take away their sins, by offering those sacrifices, by which God through Christ is reconciled to the penitent and believing offerers.”

“Say to the Israelites, ‘Of all the beasts of the earth, these ones you may eat:

“These are the beasts - Though every creature of God be good and pure in itself, yet it pleased God to make a difference between clean and unclean, which he did in part before the flood, Gen.”

But of those that only chew the cud or only have a divided hoof, you are not to eat the following: The camel, though it chews the cud, does not…

“And cheweth the cud - Hebrew. and bringeth up the cud, that is, the meat once chewed, out of the stomach in the mouth again, that it may be chewed a second time for better concoction.”

You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.

“But since the fat and skins of some of the forbidden creatures were useful, for medicinal and other good purposes, and were used by good men, it is not probable that God would have them cast away. Thus God forbad the making of images, Exod.”

They shall be an abomination to you; you must not eat their meat, and you must detest their carcasses.

“Unto you - This clause is added to shew that they were neither abominable in their own nature, nor for the food of other nations; and consequently when the partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles was taken away, these distinctions of meat were to cease.”

Additionally, you are to detest the following birds, and they must not be eaten because they are detestable: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture,

“Among the fowls - The true signification of the following Hebrew words is now lost, as the Jews at this day confess; which not falling out without God's singular providence may intimate the cessation of this law, the exact observation whereof since Christ came is…”

Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket, or grasshopper.

“The locust - Locusts, though unusual in our food, were commonly eaten by the Ethiopians, Lybians, Parthians, and other eastern people bordering upon the Jews.”

Any food coming into contact with water from that pot will be unclean, and any drink in such a container will be unclean.

“That on which such water cometh - That flesh or herbs or other food which is dressed in water, in a vessel so polluted, shall be unclean; not so, if it be food which is eaten dry, as bread, or fruits; the reason of which…”

Nevertheless, a spring or cistern containing water will remain clean, but one who touches a carcass in it will be unclean.

“Of this no reason can be given, but the will of the law-giver and his merciful condescension to men's necessities, water being scarce in those countries; and for the same reason God would have the ceremonial law of sacrifices, give place to the law of…”

but if water has been put on the seed and a carcass falls on it, it is unclean for you.

“If any water - The reason of the difference is, because wet seed doth sooner receive, and longer retain any pollution and partly because such seed was not fit to be sown presently, and therefore that necessity which justified the use of the dry seed…”

If an animal that you may eat dies, anyone who touches the carcass will be unclean until evening.

“If any beast die - Either of itself, or being killed by some wild beast, in which cases the blood was not poured forth, as it was when they were killed by men either for food or sacrifice.”

Whoever eats from the carcass must wash his clothes and will be unclean until evening, and anyone who picks up the carcass must wash his clothes and will be unclean…

“He that eateth - Unwittingly, for if he did it knowingly, it was a presumptuous sin against an express law, Deut. xiv, 21, and therefore punished with cutting off.”

“Say to the Israelites, ‘A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be unclean for seven days, as she is during the days of her menstruation.

“Seven days - Not for any filthiness which was either in the conception, or in bringing forth, but to signify the universal and deep pollution of man's nature, even from the birth, and from the conception.”

The woman shall continue in purification from her bleeding for thirty-three days.

“In the blood of her purifying - In her polluted and separated estate; for the word blood or bloods signifies both guilt, and uncleanness, as here and elsewhere.”

If, however, she gives birth to a daughter, the woman will be unclean for two weeks as she is during her menstruation.

“Threescore and six days - The time in both particulars is double to the former, not so much from natural causes, as to put an honour upon the sacrament of circumcision, which being administered to the males, did put an end to that pollution sooner…”

When the days of her purification are complete, whether for a son or for a daughter, she is to bring to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of…

“For a son or a daughter - For the birth of a son, or of a daughter: but the purification was for herself, as appears from the following verses. A sin-offering - Because of her ceremonial uncleanness, which required a ceremonial expiation.”

“When someone has a swelling or rash or bright spot on his skin that could become an infectious skin disease, he must be brought to Aaron the priest or to…

“In the skin - For there is the first seat of the leprosy, the bright spot shining like the scale of a fish, as it is in the beginning of a leprosy.”

If, however, the spot on his skin is white and does not appear to be deeper than the skin, and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest…

“Seven days - For greater assurance; to teach ministers not to be hasty in their judgments, but diligently to search and examine all things before-hand. The plague is here put for the man that hath the plague.”

The priest will examine him again on the seventh day, and if the sore has faded and has not spread on the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean; it…

“Dark - Contrary to the white colour of the leprosy. But the word may be rendered, have contracted itself, and thus the opposition seems to be most clear as the spreading of itself.”

When there is a burn on someone’s skin and the raw area of the burn becomes reddish-white or white,

“A hot burning - A burning of fire, by the touch of any hot- iron, or burning coals, which naturally makes an ulcer or sore in which the following spot is.”

the priest shall examine the infection, and if it appears to be deeper than the skin and the hair in it is yellow and thin, the priest must pronounce him…

“A yellow, thin hair - The leprosy in the body turned the hair white, in the head or beard it turned it yellow.”

the priest shall order that two live clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop be brought for the one to be cleansed.

“Two birds - The one to represent Christ as dying for his sins, the other to represent him as rising again for his purification or justification. Clean - Allowed for food and for sacrifice.”