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Text -- Leviticus 21:20 (NET)

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Context
21:20 or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or one with a spot in his eye, or a festering eruption, or a feverish rash, or a crushed testicle.
Parallel   Cross Reference (TSK)   ITL  

Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics

Dictionary Themes and Topics: STONE, STONES | SCURVY | SCAB, SCABBED | Priest | PUNISHMENTS | PRIESTS AND LEVITES | PRIEST, HIGH | MEDICINE | LEVITICUS, 1 | Israel | ITCH | Hair | HIGH PLACES6813 PRIEST | EYES, DISEASES OF THE | Dwarfs | DWARF | CROOK-BACKED | Blemish | Baldness | BROKEN | more
Table of Contents

Word/Phrase Notes
JFB , Clarke , TSK

Word/Phrase Notes
Barnes , Haydock , Gill

Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes , Geneva Bible

Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis , MHCC , Matthew Henry , Keil-Delitzsch , Constable , Guzik

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Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

JFB: Lev 21:16-24 - -- As visible things exert a strong influence on the minds of men, any physical infirmity or malformation of body in the ministers of religion, which dis...

As visible things exert a strong influence on the minds of men, any physical infirmity or malformation of body in the ministers of religion, which disturbs the associations or excites ridicule, tends to detract from the weight and authority of the sacred office. Priests laboring under any personal defect were not allowed to officiate in the public service; they might be employed in some inferior duties about the sanctuary but could not perform any sacred office. In all these regulations for preserving the unsullied purity of the sacred character and office, there was a typical reference to the priesthood of Christ (Heb 7:26).

Clarke: Lev 21:20 - -- Crooked-backed - Hunch-backed or gibbous. A dwarf, דק dak , a person too short or too thin, so as to be either particularly observable, or ridicu...

Crooked-backed - Hunch-backed or gibbous. A dwarf, דק dak , a person too short or too thin, so as to be either particularly observable, or ridiculous in his appearance

Clarke: Lev 21:20 - -- A blemish in his eye - A protuberance on the eye, observable spots or suffusions

A blemish in his eye - A protuberance on the eye, observable spots or suffusions

Clarke: Lev 21:20 - -- Scurvy, or scabbed - A bad habit of body, evidenced by scorbutic or scrofulous affections

Scurvy, or scabbed - A bad habit of body, evidenced by scorbutic or scrofulous affections

Clarke: Lev 21:20 - -- Stones broken - Is ruptured; an infirmity which would render him incapable of fulfilling the duties of his office, which might be often very fatigui...

Stones broken - Is ruptured; an infirmity which would render him incapable of fulfilling the duties of his office, which might be often very fatiguing. In the above list of blemishes we meet with some that might render the priest contemptible in the eyes of men, and be the means of leading them, not only to despise the man, but to despise the ministry itself; and we meet with others that would be a very great impediment in the discharge of his ministerial duties, and therefore any person thus blemished is by this law precluded from the ministry. The blemishes here enumerated have been considered by some in an allegorical point of view, as if only referring to the necessity of moral purity; but although holiness of heart and righteousness of life be essentially necessary in a minister of God, yet an absence of the defects mentioned above is, I fully believe, what God intends here, and for the reasons too which have been already advanced. It must however be granted, that there have been some eminent divines who have been deformed; and some with certain blemishes have been employed in the Christian ministry, and have been useful. The Mosaic rule, however, will admit of but few exceptions, when even examined according to the more extended interpretation of the Christian system. "The Hebrews say there are in all 120 blemishes which disable the priest - eight in the head, two in the neck, nine in the ears, five in the brows, seven in the eyelids, nineteen in the eyes, nine in the nose, nine in the mouth, three in the belly, three in the back, seven in the hands, sixteen in the secrets, eight in any part of the body, eight in the skin, and seven in the strength and in the breath."- Ainsworth. In ancient times, even among heathens, persons of the most respectable appearance were appointed to the priesthood; and the emperor, both among the ancient Greeks and Romans, was both king and priest. It is reported of Metellus, that, having lost an eye in endeavoring to save the Palladium from the flames, when the temple of Vesta was on fire, he was denied the priesthood, though he had rendered such an excellent piece of service to the public; yet the public opinion was that a priest who was defective in any member was to be avoided as ominous - See Dodd

"At Elis, in Greece, the judges chose the finest looking man to carry the sacred vessels of the deity; he that was next to him in beauty and elegance led the ox; and the third in personal beauty, etc., carried the garlands, ribbons, wine, and the other matters used for the sacrifice."- Athen. Deipnisoph., l. xiii., c. 2

Formerly the Church of England was very cautious in admitting to her ministry those who had gross personal defects; but now we find the hump-backed, the jolt-headed, bandy-legged, club-footed, one-eyed, etc., priests even of her high places. Why do our prelates ordain such?

TSK: Lev 21:20 - -- a dwarf : or, too slender or hath : Deu 23:1

a dwarf : or, too slender

or hath : Deu 23:1

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Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Lev 21:16-24 - -- He was not treated as an outcast, but enjoyed his privileges as a son of Aaron, except in regard to active duties. Lev 21:20 A dwarf - On...

He was not treated as an outcast, but enjoyed his privileges as a son of Aaron, except in regard to active duties.

Lev 21:20

A dwarf - One who is small and wasted, either short, as in the text, or slender, as in the margin. It is hardly likely that dwarfishness would be overlooked in this enumeration. So most critical authorities.

Scurry or scabbed - These words most probably include all affected with any skin disease.

Lev 21:22

See Lev 2:3 note; Lev 6:25 note.

Lev 21:23

Sanctuaries - The places especially holy, including the most holy place, the holy place, and the altar.

This law is of course to be regarded as one development of the great principle that all which is devoted to the service of God should be as perfect as possible of its kind.

Haydock: Lev 21:20 - -- Eyed. Hebrew dak, may denote "a dwarf." Syriac, or something very thin, Exodus xvi. 14. --- Pearl, ( albuginem ) whiteness. --- Rupture, ( he...

Eyed. Hebrew dak, may denote "a dwarf." Syriac, or something very thin, Exodus xvi. 14. ---

Pearl, ( albuginem ) whiteness. ---

Rupture, ( herniosus ). One perhaps troubled with the stone, (Menochius) whose testicles have been bruised, (Onkelos) or who has only one (Septuagint and Syriac).

Gill: Lev 21:20 - -- Or crookbackt,.... That has a protuberance, or bunch upon his back, one that we commonly call "hunchbacked"; the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem par...

Or crookbackt,.... That has a protuberance, or bunch upon his back, one that we commonly call "hunchbacked"; the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem paraphrase it,"whose eyebrows lying cover his eyes;''and so Jarchi, interprets it, the hair of whose eyebrows is long and lying; and so other Jewish writers understand it of some deformity about the eyes, the hair of the eyebrows being thick and heavy over them, and so hinder the sight, at least it makes the person not so sightly and graceful; it is said b, he that hath no eyebrows, or but one eyebrow, is the "Gibben" (the word here used) spoken of in the law, Lev 21:20,

or a dwarf; one of a small stature, as Aben Ezra, as generally hunchbacked persons are, and so unfit to attend the altar, being scarce able to reach up to it, and do the business of it, as well as must make a very mean appearance; but the above Targums understand this also of some blemish about the eyes, paraphrasing it"or he that has no hair on his eyebrows,''just the reverse of the former; Jarchi seems to understand it of a thin small film upon the eye; though something of that kind seems to be intended in the next clause:

or that hath a blemish in his eye; a mixture, a confusion, or rather a suffusion in it, as the above Targum; in which, as one of them says, the white is mixed with the black, and with which agrees what is said in the Misnah c, where it is asked, what is the confusion or suffusion? the white which spreads in the his, and enters into the black of the eye; it seems to be a white speck in the pupil of the eye, and so Jarchi, Kimchi d, and others interpret it:

or be scurvy or scabbed; both these were kinds of ulcers, according to the Jewish writers, particularly Jarchi, who says of the first, that it is a dry scab within and without; and of the other, that it is the Egyptian scab, which is moist without and dry with it; and so the Targum of Jonathan:

or hath his stones broken; this is differently interpreted in the Misnah e, and by other Jewish writers; some say it signifies one that has no testicles, or only one; so the Septuagint and the Jerusalem Targum: others, whose testicles are broken or bruised, so Jarchi: or are inflated, so Akiba, Aben Ezra, and the Targum of Jonathan; some understand it of an "hernia" or rupture, when a man is burstened: all which may in a moral and mystical sense signify either some defect in the understanding, or vices in the heart or life, which render unfit for public service in the sanctuary.

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Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Lev 21:20 The exact meaning and medical reference of the terms rendered “festering eruption” and “feverish rash” is unknown, but see the...

Geneva Bible: Lev 21:20 Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, ( o ) or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken; ( o ) Or that has a web or p...

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Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Lev 21:1-24 - --1 Of the priests' mourning.6 Of their holiness.7 Of their marriages.8 Of their estimation.9 Of the priest's daughter convicted of whoredom.10 Of the h...

MHCC: Lev 21:1-24 - --As these priests were types of Christ, so all ministers must be followers of him, that their example may teach others to imitate the Saviour. Without ...

Matthew Henry: Lev 21:16-24 - -- The priesthood being confined to one particular family, and entailed upon all the male issue of that family throughout their generations, it was ver...

Keil-Delitzsch: Lev 21:20-21 - -- גּבּן a hump-backed man. דּק , lit., crushed to powder, fine: as distinguished from the former, it signified one how had an unnaturally thin ...

Constable: Lev 17:1--27:34 - --II. The private worship of the Israelites chs. 17--27 The second major division of Leviticus deals with how the ...

Constable: Lev 21:1--22:33 - --B. Holiness of the priests, gifts, and sacrifices chs. 21-22 All the people were to maintain holiness be...

Constable: Lev 21:16-24 - --2. The second list of regulations for priests 21:16-24 "This list is introduced by the expressio...

Guzik: Lev 21:1-24 - --Leviticus 21 - Specific Instructions for the Priests A. Laws for priests in general. 1. (1-4) Priests are forbidden from touching dead bodies. And...

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Introduction / Outline

JFB: Leviticus (Book Introduction) LEVITICUS. So called from its treating of the laws relating to the ritual, the services, and sacrifices of the Jewish religion, the superintendence of...

JFB: Leviticus (Outline) BURNT OFFERINGS OF THE HERD. (Lev. 1:1-17) THE MEAT OFFERINGS. (Lev. 2:1-16) THE PEACE OFFERING OF THE HERD. (Lev. 3:1-17) SIN OFFERING OF IGNORANCE....

TSK: Leviticus (Book Introduction) Leviticus is a most interesting and important book; a book containing a code of sacrificial, ceremonial, civil, and judicial laws, which, for the puri...

TSK: Leviticus 21 (Chapter Introduction) Overview Lev 21:1, Of the priests’ mourning; Lev 21:6, Of their holiness; Lev 21:7, Of their marriages; Lev 21:8, Of their estimation; Lev 21:9,...

Poole: Leviticus (Book Introduction) THIRD BOOK OF MOSES CALLED LEVITICUS THE ARGUMENT This Book, containing the actions of about one month’ s space, acquainteth us with the Lev...

Poole: Leviticus 21 (Chapter Introduction) 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...

MHCC: Leviticus (Book Introduction) God ordained divers kinds of oblations and sacrifices, to assure his people of the forgiveness of their offences, if they offered them in true faith a...

MHCC: Leviticus 21 (Chapter Introduction) Laws concerning the priests.

Matthew Henry: Leviticus (Book Introduction) An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Third Book of Moses, Called Leviticus There is nothing historical in all this book of Leviticus exc...

Matthew Henry: Leviticus 21 (Chapter Introduction) This chapter might borrow its title from Mal 2:1, " And now, O you priests, this commandment is for you." It is a law obliging priests with the ut...

Constable: Leviticus (Book Introduction) Introduction Title The Hebrews derived the title of this book from the first word in i...

Constable: Leviticus (Outline) Outline "At first sight the book of Leviticus might appear to be a haphazard, even repetitious arrangement of en...

Constable: Leviticus Leviticus Bibliography Aharoni, Yohanan, and Michael Avi-Yonah. The Macmillan Bible Atlas. Revised ed. New York...

Haydock: Leviticus (Book Introduction) INTRODUCTION. The Book is called Leviticus : because it treats of the offices, ministries, rites and ceremonies of the Priests and Levites. The H...

Gill: Leviticus (Book Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS This book is commonly called by the Jews Vajikra, from the first word with which it begins, and sometimes תורת כהנ...

Gill: Leviticus 21 (Chapter Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 21 This chapter respects the priests, the sons of Aaron, and forbids their mourning for the dead, unless in some cases, L...

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