Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Leviticus 21:13 - 21:24

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Leviticus 21:13 - 21:24


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Wives of Priests; Blemishes

v. 13. And he shall take a wife in her virginity,
a pure virgin.

v. 14. A widow, or a divorced woman, or profane,
a fallen woman, or an harlot, these shall he not take,

v. 7. but he shall take a virgin of his own people to wife, a daughter of Israel.

v. 15. Neither shall he profane his seed among his people
by being joined in wedlock in a way which would not harmonize with the sanctity of his position; for I, the Lord, do sanctify him.

v. 16. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,


v. 17. Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations,
among all his coming descendants, that hath any blemish, any bodily defect, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God, the sacrifices in general, for these culminated in the showbread.

v. 18. For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose,
misshapen or slit, or anything superfluous, abnormal members of the body,

v. 19. or a man that is broken-footed,
that has broken-down arches, or broken-handed,

v. 20. or crookbacked,
one that has a hump, or a dwarf, one that is abnormally slender, or that hath a blemish in his eye, that is, a white spot conspicuous enough to draw attention, or be scurvy, affected with a growth which resembled leprosy,or scabbed, with a disfiguring skin-disease, or hath his stones broken, affected with a disease of the sexual organs;

v. 21. no man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron, the priest, shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire; he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God,
he was excluded from the characteristic work of the priesthood.

v. 22. He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy,
Lev_2:3, and of the holy, of the wave-breast and of the heave-shoulder, of first-fruits, tithes, and gifts. This compassionate provision compensated, in a way, for the exclusion of these men from active service in the Sanctuary.

v. 23. Only he shall not go in unto the veil, nor come nigh unto the altar,
he shall not discharge the official functions of the high priest or of the priests, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not My sanctuaries; for I, the Lord, do sanctify them.

v. 24. And Moses told it unto Aaron and to his sons and unto all the children of Israel;
for the entire congregation was interested in the observance of these ordinances. In the New Testament the congregation of the believers is even more interested in the keeping of God's ordinances, because the discrimination between a special priesthood and a laity no longer exists, and every member is responsible for matters of doctrine and of life.