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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Leviticus 21:17 - 21:17
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Whosoever he be of thy seed, whether the high priest or the inferior ones.
In their generations; in all successive ages, as long as your priesthood and policy endures.
Any blemish, i.e. any defect or excess of parts, any notorious deformity, or imperfection in his body. The reason hereof is partly typical, that he might more fully represent Christ, the great High Priest, who was typified both by the priest and sacrifice, and therefore both were to be without blemish; partly moral, to teach all Christians, and especially ministers of holy things, what purity and perfection of heart and life they should labour after, and that notorious blemishes in the mind or conversation render a man unfit for the ministry of the gospel; and partly prudential, because such blemishes were apt to breed contempt of the person, and consequently of his function, and of the holy things wherein he ministered. For which reason, some conceive, that still such persons as have notorious defects or deformities, which render them contemptible, are not fit for the ministry; which may be true in the general, except where there are eminent gifts and graces, which are sufficient to vindicate a man from the contemptibleness of his bodily presence. The particular defects here mentioned I shall not enlarge upon, because some of the Hebrew words are diversely interpreted, and because the use of these things being abolished, the knowledge of them is not very necessary.
The bread; either the shew-bread, one eminent part being named for the whole; or, the food, i.e. all the oblations. See Poole "Lev_21:6".