Leviticus 5:2 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Leviticus 5:2
Or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcase of an unclean beast, or a carcase of unclean cattle, or the carcase of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him; he also shall be unclean, and guilty.
properly · noun, common feminine singular absolute
touch
תִּגַּע֮ti.Ga'
H5060
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
unclean
טָמֵא֒ta.Me'
H2931
foul in a religious sense · adjective, masculine singular absolute
thing
דָּבָ֣רda.Var
H1697
a word · noun, common masculine singular absolute
carcase
בְנִבְלַ֨תve.niv.Lat
H5038
a flabby thing · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
unclean
טְמֵאָ֗הte.me.'Ah
H2931
foul in a religious sense · adjective, feminine singular absolute
beast
חַיָּ֜הchai.Yah
H2416
alive · noun, common feminine singular absolute
carcase
בְּנִבְלַת֙be.niv.Lat
H5038
a flabby thing · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
unclean
טְמֵאָ֔הte.me.'Ah
H2931
foul in a religious sense · adjective, feminine singular absolute
cattle
בְּהֵמָ֣הbe.he.Mah
H929
properly · noun, common feminine singular absolute
carcase
בְּנִבְלַ֖תbe.niv.Lat
H5038
a flabby thing · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
unclean
טָמֵ֑אta.Me'
H2931
foul in a religious sense · adjective, masculine singular absolute
things
שֶׁ֣רֶץShe.retz
H8318
a swarm · noun, common masculine singular absolute
hidden
וְנֶעְלַ֣םve.ne'.Lam
H5956
to veil from sight · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
unclean
טָמֵ֖אta.Me'
H2931
foul in a religious sense · adjective, masculine singular absolute
guilty
וְאָשֵֽׁםve.'a.Shem
H816
to be guilty · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Leviticus 5:17 And if a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the LORD; though he wist it not, yet…
Deuteronomy 14:8 And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch the…
Leviticus 11:11 They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination.
Leviticus 11:24-40 And for these ye shall be unclean: whosoever toucheth the carcase of them shall be unclean until the even.
Numbers 19:11-16 He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.
Haggai 2:13 Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall…
Leviticus 4:13 And if the whole congregation of Israel sin through ignorance, and the thing be hid from the eyes of the assembly, and they have done somewh…
Leviticus 5:4 Or if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man shall pronounce with an oath, and it be…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Leviticus 5:1-6
I. The offences here supposed are, 1. A man's concealing the truth when he was sworn as a witness to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Judges among the Jews had power to adjure not only the witnesses, as with us, but the person suspected (contrary to a rule of our law, that no man is bound to accuse himself), as appears by the high priest adjuring our Saviour, who thereupon answered, though before he stood silent, Mat 26:63, Mat 26:64. Now (Lev 5:1), If a soul sin (that is, a person, for the soul is the man), if he hear the voice of swearing (that is, if he be adjured to testify what he knows, by an oath of the Lord upon him, Kg1 8:31), if in such a case, for fear…
TOUCHING ANY THING UNCLEAN. (Lev 5:2-3)
if a soul touch any unclean thing--A person who, unknown to himself at the time, came in contact with any thing unclean, and either neglected the requisite ceremonies of purification or engaged in the services of religion while under the taint of ceremonial defilement, might be afterwards convinced that he had committed an offense.
Adam Clarke on Leviticus 5:2
Any unclean thing - Either the dead body of a clean animal, or the living or dead carcass of any unclean creature. All such persons were to wash their clothes and themselves in clean water, and were considered as unclean till the evening, Lev 11:24-31. But if this had been neglected, they were obliged to bring a trespass-offering. What this meant, see in the notes on Leviticus 7 (note).
John Gill on Leviticus 5:2
Or if a soul touch any unclean thing,.... Meaning an Israelite, for only such were bound by this law, which pronounced a person unclean that touched anything that was so in a ceremonial sense; this is the general, including whatsoever by the law was unclean; the particulars follow:
whether it be a carcass of an unclean beast, as the camel, the coney, the hare, and the swine, Leviticus 11:2.
or a carcass of unclean cattle; as the horse, and the ass, which were unclean for food, and their dead carcasses not to be touched, Leviticus 11:26.
or the carcass of unclean creeping things: such as are mentioned in Leviticus 11:29.
and if it be hidden from him; that he has touched them; or the uncle…
The Church Fathers
After mentioning this kind of sin, consisting of not denouncing the perjury of a person, the Scripture does not mandate to offer any sacrifice for that sin. And then he adds: Whoever touches anything impure, whether it be from a corpse, or from an impure animal captured by a wild beast, and from the things that have died of impure abominations, the corpse of unclean hams, or touch anything of the human impurities, of any impurity of the man with whom it is stained, if he touches it, and does not realize it, but later he realizes and becomes guilty. The sacrifice that had to be done for this kind of sin is not mentioned here either, but the text adds the following: Whoever makes an oath distinguishing with his lips doing evil or doing good according to all the things that man distinguishes swear, and do not notice and know and commit one of these sins, and confess the sin with the one who sinned against him (Lv 5,4). United and explained all these things without any mention of sacrifice, the text adds the following: And will offer to the Lord for these sins that he did, for the sin he committed, a female, a sheep of the sheep or a goat of the goats by the sin. The priest will make the atonement for him, for his sin, and the sin will be forgiven (Lv 5,6). What does it mean that for a hidden perjury of a person and for touching a corpse or something impure, the Scripture does not mention any sacrifice and, instead, for the sin of making a false oath involuntarily send to sacrifice a sheep or a goat? Should we think that this sacrifice must be offered for all the sins mentioned above? In fact, the author preferred to list all the sins first and then say with what sacrifice they had to expiate. But in all the genera of sins mentioned above there is something expressed in a rather obscure way, due to the expressions that Scripture uses, as, for example, when it says: the corpse of the juices. The Greeks call kténe what many of our translators call increments (jumentos). Now, this word in the usual Latin usage designates those animals that are usually used mostly as pack animals, such as horses, donkeys, mules, camels, and other animals like that. On the other hand, what the Greeks call kténe has such a broad meaning that it can be understood under this name to all or almost all the cattle. And therefore, in the Greek text was added with a new kind of expression,…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Ezekiel, Book of — Consists mainly of three groups of prophecies. After an account of his call to the prophetical office (1-3:21), Ezekiel (1) utters words of denunciation against the Jews (3:22-24), warning them of…
Atonement, Under The Law · Offered for: Persons unclean — Offered for: Persons unclean
B · Unclean: Caused uncleanness when dead — Unclean: Caused uncleanness when dead
Creeping Things · Unclean — Unclean
Defilement · .Touching — .Touching
Sanitation · General references — General references
Trespass Offering · To be offered: For involuntarily touching unclean things — To be offered: For involuntarily touching unclean things
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Leviticus 5:1-13
1. And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity.
1. Quum autem anima peccaverit audiendo vocem juramenti, et ipsc sit testis, quod aut videtit, aut sciverit: nisi renuntitaverit, feret poenam iniquitatis suae.
2. Or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcase of an unclean beast, or a carcase of unclean cattle, or the carcase of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him; he also shall be unclean, and guilty.
2. Aut si anima tetigerit aliquam remimmundam, sive cadaver ferae immundae, sive cadaver animalis immundi, sive cadaver rep…
There follow here three special examples of sin on the part of the common Israelite, all sins of omission and rashness of a lighter kind than the cases mentioned in Lev 4:27.; in which, therefore, if the person for whom expiation was to be made was in needy circumstances, instead of a goat or ewe-sheep, a pair of doves could be received as a sacrificial gift, or, in cases of still greater poverty, the tenth of an ephah of fine flour. The following were the cases. The first (Lev 5:1), when any one had heard the voice of an oath (an oath spoken aloud) and was a witness, i.e., was in a condition to give evidence, whether he had seen what took place or had learned it, that is to say, had come to…
ceremonially unclean: “Clean” and “unclean” did not pertain to hygiene (see 11:1–15:33) but to suitability for participating in worship or, in the case of animals, suitability for sacrifice or human consumption. A list of clean and unclean animals is found in 11:1-47. The requirement for becoming clean after touching an unclean animal was merely to wash one’s clothes and remain apart from the community until evening (11:25). Most likely, therefore, the requirement of this sin offering indicates that the person had failed to follow the prescription for cleansing (11:27-28).
Rashi on Leviticus 5:2
'או נפש אשר תגע וגו OR IF A SOUL TOUCH [ANY UNCLEAN THING] etc., and after acquiring this uncleanness eats holy things or enters the Sanctuary, this being something which if done willfully is subject to the penalty of excision — thus is it explained in Treatise Shevuot 14b.
עלם ממנוונ AND IT WAS HIDDEN FROM HIM — the uncleanness was hidden from him (escaped his notice, not the fact that the things he ate were holy or that the place he entered was the Sanctuary. The translation therefore is “and it — the fact that he was unclean — escaped his notice, but he actually was unclean”) (Sifra, Vayikra Dibbura d'Chovah, Chapter 13 7; cf. Shevuot 14b).
םואש AND HE INCUR GUILT through eating…
