John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 2. Command the children of Israel , etc.] Not as from himself, but from the Lord; deliver out the following as a command of his, to which obedience was required of all the children of Israel: that they put out of the camp every leper ; there were three camps, Jarchi says, in the time of their encampment; between the curtains was the camp of the Shechinah, or the divine Majesty; the encampment of the Levites round about; and from thence to the end was the camp of the standards, to the four winds, which was the camp of Israel; and the leper was to be put out of them all; so Ben Gersom; (see Leviticus 13:46); and everyone that hath an issue ; a gonorrhoea, man or woman, (see Leviticus 15:2,19); according Jarchi, such an one might be in the camp of Israel, but was to be put out of the other two camps: and whosoever is defiled by the dead ; by attending the funerals of the dead, or touching them, (see Leviticus 21:1 22:4); such an one might go into the camp of the Levites, according to Jarchi and Ben Gersom; and was to be put of none but the camp of the Shechinah, or the tabernacle; but the camp of Israel seems to be meant of them all, out of which they were to be put, as an emblem of the rejection of all impure persons out of the church of God.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-10 - The camp was to be cleansed. The purity of the church must be kept a carefully as the peace and order of it. Every polluted Israelite mus be separated. The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable. The greater profession of religion any house or family makes, the more the are obliged to put away iniquity far from them. If a man overreach of defraud his brother in any matter, it is a trespass against the Lord who strictly charges and commands us to do justly. What is to be don when a man's awakened conscience charges him with guilt of this kind though done long ago? He must confess his sin, confess it to God confess it to his neighbour, and take shame to himself; though it go against him to own himself in a lie, yet he must do it. Satisfactio must be made for the offence done to God, as well as for the los sustained by the neighbour; restitution in that case is not enoug without faith and repentance. While that which is wrongly gotten i knowingly kept, the guilt remains on the conscience, and is not don away by sacrifice or offering, prayers or tears; for it is the same ac of sin persisted in. This is the doctrine of right reason, and of the word of God. It detects hypocrites, and directs the tender conscienc to proper conduct, which, springing from faith in Christ, will make wa for inward peace.
Original Hebrew צו6680 את853 בני1121 ישׂראל3478 וישׁלחו7971 מן4480 המחנה4264 כל3605 צרוע6879 וכל3605 זב2100 וכל3605 טמא2931 לנפשׁ׃5315
