John Gill Commentary Leviticus 12

And the Lord spoke to Moses
The laws in the preceding chapter were delivered both to Moses and Aaron, but what follows in this only to Moses; but inasmuch as the priest had a concern in it, it being his business to offer the sacrifices required by the following law, it was no doubt given to Moses, to be delivered to Aaron, as well as to the people. R. Semlai remarks, that as the creation of man was after that of the beasts, fowls, fishes so the laws concerning the uncleanness of men are after those relating to beasts, etc., and they begin with the uncleanness of a new mother, because, as Aben Ezra observes, the birth is the beginning of man:

saying :
as follows.

Speak unto the children of Israel
For this law only concerned them, and not other nations of the world:

if a woman has conceived seed ;
by lying with a man, and so becomes pregnant, and goes on with her pregnancy until she brings forth a child. The Jews from here gather that this law respects abortions; that if a woman has conceived and miscarries, she must bring her offering eighty-one days after the birth of a female, and forty-one after a male^F13; but the law seems only to regard such as are with child, and proceed to the due time of childbirth, whether then the child is born alive or dead:

and born a man child ;
which is, generally speaking, not only matter of joy to the mother, but to the whole family, see (John 16:21). Then she shall be unclean seven days. She must be separate from all company, except those whose presence is necessary to take care of her in her circumstances and do what is proper for her. Even these became ceremonially unclean thereby. Indeed, her husband was not permitted to sit near her, nor to eat and drink with her:

according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she
be unclean ;
She was unclean the same number of days, even seven, on account of childbirth, as she was for her monthly courses. These are called here an infirmity or sickness, incident to all females when grown up, at which time they were separate from all persons. The case was the same with a new mother; see (Leviticus 15:14–29).

FOOTNOTES:

• F13: Misn. Ceritot, c. 1. sect. 6. Maimon. & Bartenora, in ib.

And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be
circumcised .
Or the foreskin of his flesh, that is, of the man child born according to the law, (Genesis 17:12).

And this seems to furnish out a reason why a male child was not circumcised before the eighth day, and why it was then, because before that its mother was in her separation and uncleanness, and then was freed from it; and so the Targum of Jonathan. The circumcision of a male child on the eighth day was religiously observed, and even was not omitted on account of the sabbath, when the eighth day happened to be on that, (See Gill on John 7:22) (See Gill on John 7:23).

It is an observation of Aben Ezra on this place, that the wise men say "in the day", and not in the night, lo, he that is born half an hour before the setting of the sun is circumcised after six days and a half, for the day of the law is not from time to time.

And she shall continue in the blood of her purifying three
and thirty days
That is, so many more, in all forty; for though at the end of seven days she was in some respects free from her uncleanness, yet not altogether, but remained in the blood of her purifying, or in the purifying of her blood, which was more and more purified, and completely at the end of forty days: so with the Persians it is said, a new mother must avoid everything for forty days; when that time is passed, she may wash and be purified ^F14 ; and which perhaps Zoroastres, the founder of the Persian religion, at least the reformer of it, being a Jew, as is by some supposed, he might take it from here:

she shall touch no hallowed thing ;
as the tithe, the heave offering, the flesh of the peace offerings, as Aben Ezra explains it, if she was a priest's wife:

nor come into the sanctuary ;
the court of the tabernacle of the congregation, or the court of the temple, as the same writer observes; and so with the Greeks, a pregnant woman might not come into a temple before the fortieth day ^F15 , that is, of her delivery:

until the days of her purifying be fulfilled ;
until the setting of the sun of the fortieth day; on the morrow of that she was to bring the atonement of her purification, as Jarchi observes; (See Gill on Leviticus 12:6).

FOOTNOTES:

• F14: Lib. Shad-der, port. 86. apud Hyde Hist. Relig. Vet. Pers. p. 478.
• F15: Censorinus apud Grotium in loc.

But if she bear a maid child
A daughter, whether born alive or dead, if she goes with it her full time:

then she shall be unclean two weeks ;
or fourteen days running; and on the fifteenth day be free or loosed, as the Targum of Jonathan, just as long again as for a man child:

as in her separation ;
on account of her monthly courses; the sense is, that she should be fourteen days, to all intents and purposes, as unclean as when these are upon her:

and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying sixty and six days ;
which being added to the fourteen make eighty days, just as many more as in the case of a male child; the reason of which, as given by some Jewish writers, is, because of the greater flow of humours, and the corruption of the blood through the birth of a female than of a male:

but perhaps the truer reason may be, what a learned man ^F16 suggests, that a male infant circumcised on the eighth day, by the profusion of its own blood, bears part of the purgation; wherefore the mother, for the birth of a female, must suffer twice the time of separation; the separation is finished within two weeks, but the purgation continues sixty six days; a male child satisfies the law together, and at once, by circumcision; but an adult female bears both the purgation and separation every month.

According to Hippocrates ^F17 , the purgation of a new mother, after the birth of a female, is forty two days, and after the birth of a male thirty days; so that it should seem there is something in nature which requires a longer time for purifying after the one than after the other, and which may in part be regarded by this law; but it chiefly depends upon the sovereign will of the lawgiver.

The Jews do not now strictly observe this. Buxtorf ^F18 says, the custom prevails now with them, that whether a woman bears a male or a female, at the end of forty days she leaves her bed, and returns to her husband; but Leo of Modena relates ^F19 , that if she bears a male child, her husband may not touch her for the space of seven weeks; and if a female, the space of three months; though he allows, in some places, they continue separated a less while, according as the custom of the place is.

FOOTNOTES:

• F16: Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. vol. 2. p. 314, 315.
• F17: Apud Grotium in loc.
• F18: Synagog. Jud. c. 5. p. 120.
• F19: History of Rites, Customs of the Jews, par. 4. c. 5. sect. 3.