Commentary by ROBERT JAMIESON
CHAPTER 12
Lev 12:1-8 . WOMAN'S UNCLEANNESS BY CHILDBIRTH.2. If a woman, &c.--The mother of a boy was ceremonially unclean for a week, at the end of which the child was circumcised ( Gen 17:12 Rom 4:11-13 ); the mother of a girl for two weeks ( Lev 12:5 ) --a stigma on the sex ( 1Ti 2:14, 15 ) for sin, which was removed by Christ; everyone who came near her during that time contracted a similar defilement. After these periods, visitors might approach her though she was still excluded from the public ordinances of religion [ Lev 12:4 ].
6-8. the days of her purifying--Though the occasion was of a festive character, yet the sacrifices appointed were not a peace offering, but a burnt offering and sin offering, in order to impress the mind of the parent with recollections of the origin of sin, and that the child inherited a fallen and sinful nature. The offerings were to be presented the day after the period of her separation had ended--that is, forty-first for a boy, eighty-first for a girl.
8. bring two turtles, &c.--(See on JF & B for Le 5:6). This was the offering made by Mary, the mother of Jesus, and it affords an incontestable proof of the poor and humble condition of the family ( Luk 2:22-24 ).