while in abeyance. There is an intense reality in the fact of the divine law taking hold of a man by
the ordinary infirmities of flesh, and setting its stamp, as it were, in the lowest clay of which he is
moulded. The sacredness attached to the human body is parallel to that which invested the ark of
the covenant itself. It is as though Jehovah thereby would teach men that the “very hairs of their
head were all numbered” before him and that “in his book were all their members written.” Thus
was inculcated so to speak a bodily holiness. Nor were the Israelites to be only “separated from
other people,” but they were to be “holy to God,” (Leviticus 20:24,26) “a kingdom of priests, and
a holy nation.” The importance to physical well-being of the injunctions which required frequent
ablution, under whatever special pretexts, can be but feebly appreciated in our cooler and damper
climate. Uncleanness, as referred to men, may be arranged in three degrees:
•That which defiled merely “until even.” and was removed by bathing and washing the clothes at
the end of it; such were all contacts with dead animals.
•That graver sort which defiled for seven days, and was removed by the use of the “water of
separation;” such were all defilements connected with the human corpse.
•Uncleanness from the morbid perpetual or menstrual state, lasting as long as that morbid state
lasted; and in the case of leprosy lasting often for life. As the human person was itself the seat of
a covenant token, so male and female had each their ceremonial obligations in proportion to their
sexual differences. There is an emphatic reminder of human weakness in the fact of birth and
death-man’s passage alike into and out of his mortal state— being marked with a stated pollution.
The corpse bequeathed a defilement of seven days to all who handled it, to the “tent” or chamber
of death, and to sundry things within it. Nay, contact with one slain in the field of battle or with
even a human bone or grave, was no less effectual to pollute than that with a corpse dead by the
course of nature. (Numbers 19:11-18) This shows that the source of pollution lay in the mere fact
of death. The duration of defilement caused by the birth of a female infant being double that due
to a male, extending respectively to eighty and forty days in All, (Leviticus 12:2-5) may perhaps
represent the woman’s heavier share in the first sin and first curse. (Genesis 3:16; 1 Timothy 2:14)
Among causes of defilement should be noticed the fact that the ashes of the red heifer burnt whole
which were mixed with water and became the standing resource for purifying uncleanness in the
second degree, themselves became a source of defilement to all who were clean, even as of
purification to the unclean, and so the water. Somewhat similarly the scapegoat, who bore away
the sins of the people, defiled him who led him into the wilderness, and the bringing forth aid
burning the sacrifice on the Great Day of Atonement had a similar power. This lightest form of
uncleanness was expiated by bathing the body and washing the clothes. Besides the water of
purification made as afore said, men and women, in their “issues,” were, after seven days, reckoned
from the cessation of the disorder, to bring two turtle-doves or young pigeons to be killed by the
priests. All these kinds of uncleanness disqualified for holy functions: as the layman so affected
might not approach the congregation and the sanctuary, so any priest who incurred defilement
must abstain from holy things. (Leviticus 22:2-8) [Leper, Leprosy] The religion of the persians
shows a singularly close correspondence with the Levitical code.
Undergirding
(Acts 27:17) [Ship]
Unicorn
the rendering of the Authorized Version of the Hebrew reem, a word which occurs seven times
in the Old Testament as the name of some large wild animal. The reem of the Hebrew Bible,
frankie
(Frankie)
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