The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 5:3

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

That they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell. Cleanliness, decency, and the anxious removal even of unwitting pollutions were things due to God himself, and part of the awful reverence to be paid to his presence in the midst of Israel. It is of course easy to depreciate the value of such outward cleanness, as compared with inward; but when we consider the frightful prevalence of filthiness in Christian countries

we may indeed acknowledge the heavenly wisdom of these regulations, and the incalculable value of the tone of mind engendered by them. With the Jews "cleanliness" was not "next to godliness,'' it was part of godliness.

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commentaryMatthew Henry on Numbers 5:1-10The camp was to be cleansed. The purity of the church must be kept as carefully as the peace and order of it. Every polluted Israelite must be separated. The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable. The greater…Matthew Henry commentaryThe Unclean to Be Removed. (b. c. 1490.)THE UNCLEAN TO BE REMOVED. (B. C. 1490.) Here is, I. A command for the purifying of the camp, by turning out from within its lines all those that were ceremonially unclean, by issues, leprosies, or the touch of dead bod…Matthew Henry commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 5:1-7EXPOSITION THE UNCLEAN TO BE REMOVED (Numbers 5:1-4).Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 5:1-4THE PUBLIC EXCLUSION OF THE UNCLEAN This law, like many others, in part a sanitary law; but also educational in spiritual truth, and typical of eternal realities. Two truths taught:— I. THE HOLINESS OF GOD. This lesson,…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 5:1-4THINGS THAT DEFILE The book up to this point is occupied with the counting and discipline of the people, both those for war and those for tabernacle service. Now the cleansing of the camp is to be attended to. I. THE CL…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 5:1-4THE NECESSITY OF PUTTING AWAY SIN In this section we have, spiritually, the necessary sentence of banishment upon those defiled with sin, and the duty of separating them. Consider, therefore— I. THAT NO LEPER MIGHT STAY…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 5:1-4THE EXPULSION AND RESTORATION OF THE UNCLEAN The host has now been marshaled. The several tribes have taken the places allotted to them in relation to the tabernacle and to one another. They are about to set forth on th…Joseph S. Exell and contributors