Charles Ellicott Commentary Leviticus 22:7

"And when the sun is down, he shall be clean; and afterward he shall eat of the holy things, because it is his bread." — Leviticus 22:7 (ASV)

And shall afterward eat ... because it is his food. — Since the sacrifices, which were the perquisites of the officiating priests, were the only things he had to live on, the priest who had contracted defilement virtually had to go without food until sundown, when he purified himself by the prescribed ritual washings.

That which dieth of itself. — That is, clean animals or birds that have not been properly slaughtered but have met with an accident. These have already been forbidden to every ordinary Israelite . In the case of a priest eating the proscribed meat, the consequences would be more serious, since he would be debarred from his priestly duties.

Keep my ordinance. — That is, the ordinance laid down in the preceding verse concerning animals that died a natural death, and so on.

And die therefore, if they profane it. — The death threatened here for the transgression of the ordinance is not one to be inflicted by an earthly tribunal but, as it was explained during the Second Temple period, “by the hand of heaven.” Therefore, the Chaldee version of Jonathan renders it, “lest they be killed for it by a flaming fire,” like Nadab and Abihu.