Leviticus 12

Leviticus 11–15 forms a collection of regulations dealing with purity (ritual cleanness) and impurity. Chapter 12 follows the regulations in chapter 11 concerning clean and unclean animals and addresses the purification of a woman after childbirth. Regulations concerning skin diseases begin in chapter 13.

Outline

• Verses 1–4: The LORD speaks to the children of Israel through Moses. When a woman bears a male child, she is unclean for seven days, as in the days of her menstruation. On the eighth day the child is to be circumcised, and the woman must continue thirty-three more days in the blood of her purifying. Until those days are fulfilled, she may not touch any hallowed thing or come into the sanctuary.
• Verse 5: If she bears a female child, she is unclean for two weeks (fourteen days), and she must continue sixty-six more days in the blood of her purifying.
• Verses 6–7: When the days are fulfilled, the woman brings a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering to the priest at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. The priest offers them and makes an atonement for her, and she is cleansed.
• Verse 8: If she cannot afford a lamb, she brings two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for the burnt offering and the other for the sin offering.

Key Verses

• Leviticus 12:3: "And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised." The circumcision command of Genesis 17 is reaffirmed within the Law.
• Leviticus 12:8: "She shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons." This alternative provision for the poor connects with the purification rite in Luke 2.

People and Places

• The LORD, Moses, the priest
• Tabernacle of the congregation: The tent where God met with his people, that is, the tabernacle. The offerings are presented at its door.

Points for Reflection

• The impurity in view here is not moral sin but a ritual state that determines whether a person may approach the sanctuary and holy things. Some scholars understand the sin offering in this chapter as a sacrifice that restores purity rather than one that obtains forgiveness of sin.
• The text does not explain why the period is doubled when a female child is born. Various interpretations have been offered, but they remain interpretations rather than explanations given by the text itself.
• In the New Testament, Mary and Joseph of Nazareth had the infant Jesus circumcised on the eighth day, and when the days of her purification were accomplished, they came to offer "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons" (Luke 2:21–24). This scene is commonly read as evidence that Jesus' family was poor. Protestants hold that such ceremonial laws are fulfilled in Christ and therefore do not observe them literally (see Hebrews 10:1).