Matthew Poole Commentary - Leviticus 21:1 - 21:1

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Matthew Poole Commentary - Leviticus 21:1 - 21:1


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LEVITICUS CHAPTER 21



Priests must not defile themselves, in mourning over the dead: cases excepted, Lev_21:1-6. Nor marry with a whore, profane, or divorced woman, Lev_21:7,8. His daughter, if a whore, to be burnt with fire, Lev_21:9. The high priest must in no case defile himself with the dead, Lev_21:10-12: must marry a virgin of his people, Lev_21:13-15. Persons having bodily defects allowed to eat of the holy things, but not to serve in the tabernacle, or offer to God, Lev_21:16-24.



To wit, by touching of the dead body, or abiding in the same house with it, or assisting at his funerals, or eating of the funeral feast. The reason of this law is evident, because by such pollution they were excluded from converse with men, to whom by their function they were to be serviceable upon all occasions, and from the handling of holy things, Num_6:6 19:11,14,16 Deu 26:14 Hos_9:4. And God would hereby teach them, and in them all successive ministers of holy things, that they ought so entirely to give themselves to the service of God, that they ought to renounce all expressions of natural affections, and all worldly employments, so far as they are impediments to the discharge of their holy services. See Lev_10:3,7 Deu 33:9 Mat_8:22. Hereby also God would beget in the people a greater reverence to the priestly function, and oblige the priests to a greater degree of strictness and purity than other men.