Verse 1

Leviticus 12:1-8. Woman‘s uncleanness by childbirth.

Verse 2

If a woman, etc. — The mother of a boy was ceremonially unclean for a week, at the end of which the child was circumcised (Genesis 17:12; Romans 4:11-13); the mother of a girl for two weeks (Leviticus 12:5) - a stigma on the sex (1 Timothy 2:14, 1 Timothy 2:15) 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 [Leviticus 12:4 ].

Verses 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.

Verse 8

bring two turtles, etc. — (See on Leviticus 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 (Luke 2:22-24).