(III.) The laws concerning j)^'ritii and imjmriti/, and the appropriate sacrifices and ordinances for putting away impurity (chap, xi-xvi). The first seven deca- logues had reference to the putting away oC guilt. By the appointed sacrifices the separation between man and God was healed. The next seven concern themselves with the putting away of impurity. That chap, xi-xv hang together so as to form one series of laws there can be no doubt. Besides that they treat of kindred subjects, they have their characteristic words, K -li, nS":"J, " unclean," " nncleanness," "lini!, "iHi:, " clean," whicli occur iu almost every verse. The only question is about ch. xvi, which by its opening is connected im- mediately with the occurrence related in ch. x. His- torically it would seem, therefore, that ch. xvi ought to have followed ch. x. As this order is neglected, it would lead us to suspect that some other principle of arrange- ment than that of historical sequence has been adopted. This we find in the solemn significance of the great day of atonement. The high-priest on that day made atone- ment "because of the uitckanness of the children of Is- rael, and because of their transgressions in all their sins" (xvi, 1(J), and he "reconciled the holy place and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar" (ver. 20). Delivered from their guilt and cleansed from their pol- lutions, from that day forward the children of Israel en- tered upon a new and holy life. This was typified both by the ordinance that tlie bullock and the goat for the sin-offering were burnt without the camp "(ver. 27), and also bv the sending away of the goat laden with the ini(iuities of the people into the wilderness. Hence ch. xvi eeems to stand most fitly at the end of this second
group of seven decalogues. It has reference, we be- lieve, not only (as Bertheau supposes) to the putting away, as by one solemn act, of all those uncleannesses mentioned in- ch. xi-xv, and for which the various ex- piations and cleansings there appointed were temporary and insufficient, but also to the making of atonement, in the sense of hiding sin or putting away its guilt. For not only do we find the idea of cleansing as from defile- ment, but far more prominently the idea of reconcilia- tion. The often-repeated word "iS-, "to cover, to atone," is the great word of the section.
1. The first decalogue in this group refers to clean and unclean flesh (ch. xi). Five classes of animals are pronounced unclean. The first four enactments declare what animals may or may not be eaten, whether (1) beasts of the earth (ver. 2-8), or (2) fishes (ver. 9-12), or (3) birds (verse 13-20), or (4) creeping things with wings. The next four are intended to guard against pollution by contact with the carcase of any of these animals : (5) ver. 24-2G ; (6) ver. 27, 28 ; (7) ver. 29-38 ; (8) verse 39-40. The ninth and tenth specify the last class of animals which are unclean for food, (9) ver. 41, 42, and forbid any other kind of pollution by means of them, (10) verse 43-45. Terse 46 and 47 are merely a concluding summarj'.
2. (rt.) Women's purification in childbed (cliap. xii). The whole of this chapter, according to Bertheau, con- stitutes (1) the first law of this decalogue. {]>.) The re- maining nine are to be found in the next chapter (xiii), which treats of the signs of leprosy in man and in gar- ments: (2) ver. 1-8; (3) ver. 9-17; (4) ver. 18-23; (5) ver. 24-28 ; (G) ver. 29-37 ; (7) ver. 38, 39 ; (8) ver. 40, 41; (9) ver. 42-46; (10) ver. 47-59. This arrangement of the several sections is not altogether free from objec- tion, but it is certainly supported by the characteristic mode in which each section opens. Thus, for instance, ch. xii, 2 begins with S'^"iTn "^3 iTi'X; ch. xiii, 2 with
n'^ri'^ -^s nnx, ver. 9 with ni^rin "is t^jj-^-i r«, and
so on, the same order being always observed, the sub- stantive being placed first, then "^S, and then the verb, except only in ver. 42, where the substantive is placed after the verb.
3. " The law of the leper in the day of his cleansing," i. c. the law which the j^riest is to observe in purifying the leper (xiv, 1-32). The priest is mentioned in ten verses, each of which begins one of the ten sections of this law : ver. 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 14, 15, IC, 19, 20. In each instance the word "rtSil is preceded by 1 consecut. with the perf. It is true that in verse 3, and also in verse 14, the word 'nsn occurs twice ; but in both verses there is MS. authority, as well as that of the A'ulg. and Arab, versions, for the absence of the second. Verses 21-32 may be regarded as a supplemental yirovision in cases where the leper is too poor to bring the required offering,
4. The leprosy in a house (xiv, 33-57). It is not so easy here to trace the arrangement noticed in so many other laws. There are no characteristic Avords or phrases to guide us. Bertheau's division is as follows: (1) ver. 34,35; (2) ver. 3G, 37 ; (3) ver. 38; (4) ver. 39; (5) ver. 40 ; (G) ver. 41, 42 ; (7) ver. 43-45. Then, as usual, fol- lows a short summary which closes the statute concern- ing leprosy, ver. 54-57.