Leviticus 12: 1 – 8
It’s not what you think
12 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If a woman has conceived, and borne a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her customary impurity she shall be unclean. 3 And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. 4 She shall then continue in the blood of her purification thirty-three days. She shall not touch any hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled. 5 ‘But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her customary impurity, and she shall continue in the blood of her purification sixty-six days. 6 ‘When the days of her purification are fulfilled, whether for a son or a daughter, she shall bring to the priest a lamb of the first year as a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove as a sin offering, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 7 Then he shall offer it before the LORD, and make atonement for her. And she shall be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who has borne a male or a female. 8 ‘And if she is not able to bring a lamb, then she may bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons—one as a burnt offering and the other as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.’”
In the present time in which we live there are major conflicts regarding ‘equality’. Would you agree? Today we are going to come across some scripture in which some people have a conflict with. However, once we go over these precious words of our Holy Spirit you will find out that everything you might be in conflict with is really not what you think.
I present to you a question that someone wanted an answer to. This is what the person wrote, ‘As I was reading Leviticus, the uncleanness of women was something that particularly stood out to me. From a literary point of view, I wondered why they thought a woman had to go to such great measures to be considered “clean” and why giving birth to a baby made them unclean to begin with? Why was the cleanliness period longer for baby girls than baby boys? In addition, I want some insight as to why is the woman unclean for seven days after a male birth and after the birth of a female the mother is unclean for fourteen days. Then in addition, why the difference of 40 days of purification for the birth of baby boys and 80 days of purification for baby girls?’
To begin I would like to state that the word "cleanliness," really is talking about ‘ritual purity.’ A woman's "impurity," during her menstruation is a built-in component of her natural monthly cycle. Her status of "impurity" demonstrates her descent from a peak level of holiness, when she had the ability to conceive a precious new life through her union with her husband.
The status of "impurity" is not meant to imply sinfulness, degradation or inferiority. On the contrary, it emphasizes, in particular, the great level of holiness inherent in woman's Godly power to create and nurture a new life within her body, and the great holiness of a husband and wife's union, in general. Since a woman possesses this lofty potential, she, also bears the possibility of its void; hence her status as impurity, ritually impure. Since she experienced "the touch of death," so to speak, with the loss of potential life, as reflected by her menstruation, she enters this status of "impure."
After having given birth to a baby boy, a woman must wait a minimum of seven days before beginning her pure days; while after a baby girl is born, she must wait a minimum of fourteen days. Since the female child inherently carries a higher degree of holiness, due to her own biological, life creating capability, a greater void, or impurity, remains after her birth. Thus, the greater impurity after a baby girl's birth reflects her greater capacity for holiness (due to her creative powers) and necessitates the longer wait to remove this ritual
You also have to understand that By being called unclean, this provided rest for the mother. If she was unclean, she would not be required to work around the home or travel to the sanctuary to make an offering. Travel would have been very strenuous for a young mother. Moreover, by being called unclean, this would prevent the spread of childbed fever, which took many lives back then. However, these solutions do not address the male-female problem. The male-female objection can be met with at least three solutions:
First, this is a sign of protection for the girls –rather than inferiority. The mother may have rested longer, because they protected girls more in their culture. If a modern woman was given four days to rest in the hospital, rather than two, we wouldn’t consider this an act of bigotry. In fact, we’d probably consider it an act of favoritism!
Second, this could be due to the fact that both mother and daughter are bleeding during birth, making them doubly unclean. During birth, an infant girl will often have vaginal bleeding (v.5). Therefore, there are two sources of bleeding –not one. In this way, they were doubly unclean. Because bleeding was a symbol of death, this was all symbolic for being unclean.
Third, the baby boy was circumcised on the eighth day. If the baby boys were considered unclean, they wouldn’t have been able to be circumcised. Medically, the best time to be circumcised is eight days after conception, because Vitamin K levels are at their highest. While the boys were recovering from circumcision, the baby girls were allowed to rest, as well.
The context of purification for the mother is indirectly "holidays" for the mother as she is free from religious obligation to travel to worship in the sanctuary in Jerusalem and free from marital duty to fulfill the needs of her husband for the stipulated period depending on the gender of the baby. Of course the longer holidays means it is more beneficial to the mother.
The mother giving birth to a baby boy is subject to the 7 days of her impurity and follow by 33 days of her purification i.e. a total of 40 days of purification whereas the birth of a baby girl is subject to 14 days of her impurity and follow by 66 days of her purification i.e. a total of 80 days of her purification
For the next four chapters concentration (with a few exceptions) is on ‘uncleanness’ as it applies to men and women in connection with discharges from, or diseases in, their physical bodies. They had little scientific understanding of the various discharges from their bodies, and these regulations were certainly hygienically helpful in helping them to cope with them. But at the root of the regulations lay questions of life, and death, and wholesomeness, and a falling short of wholeness, and a providing of comfort and hope to those suffering from these conditions. At least they then felt that they understood what their problem was, rather than being afraid of it.
We have seen already that the cleanness and uncleanness of living creatures as described in chapter 11 was connected with creation in Genesis 1 and with man’s fall in Genesis 3. Creation was seen as no longer ‘very good’, but as marred and spoiled. Disease and death had entered it. But in chapter 11 we saw that ensuring ‘cleanness’, by partaking only of that which was approved by God, would help to prevent the worst effects of the fall. By avoiding the dust of death, and what was involved in it and connected with it, and looking only to the positively good things that God had placed in the world, they could be ‘clean’ and could then maintain the possibility of life before God, and of fellowship with God through their offerings and sacrifices. This would then help towards being ‘holy’, separated to God, belonging to Him and pleasing to Him.
And the whole book has revealed that when they failed, whether physically or morally, because they lived in a world affected by sin, provision was made for their restoration, both in the provisions for ridding themselves of individual ‘uncleanness’, and through the offerings and sacrifices God had provided as a way of purification from sin, atonement and rededication. In both cases there was a way back to God from both uncleanness and sin, except in the case of presumptuous sin, sin with a high hand.
The same principle applies to childbirth here. Apart from God two things dominated man’s life.
1. The provision of his basic bodily needs
2. The production of children to carry on his name, and inherit his land.
From the point of view of the beginning of things the provision of food was man’s responsibility, which is why it came first in chapter 11. And when he had sinned that was the sphere in which God punished him, although there it had been by cursing the ground (Genesis 3.17).
Next to the provision of food, which was man’s responsibility, came God’s command to ‘Go forth and multiply’ (Genesis 1.28), and that was very much seen as the woman’s obligation. Indeed women themselves saw this as their main function in life. Bringing children into the world and bringing them up brought them fulfillment and joy, and gave significance and meaning to their lives.
All had to recognize that it was not the same world as it had been when God had first given the command to multiply, for the first woman, along with her husband, had been responsible for having brought sin into the world, and there was no greater continual reminder of this than women’s problems in connection with birth. They were part of herconsequence. (Genesis 3.16 - women still call them ‘the curse’ although the Bible does not).
Chapter 11 is a reminder of a fallen world and of man’s dealings with it, a world of clean and unclean, a world of which part could be accepted because it was wholesome, and of much which must be shunned because it was not. But through its gloom had shone out the fact that God had from the beginning provided clean food for man, and that if he was discerning and obedient, and rejected the unclean, he could, once he had obtained purification and atonement through offerings and sacrifices, enjoy a life that was full and blessed. He could avoid the unclean. He could be ‘holy’, set apart to God and to some extent like Him. And he could obtain ‘clean’ food. For the curse had not fallen on the cattle, or on the grain, or on Adam himself, but on the ground that produced the grain, on the dust of the earth, and on what lurked in that ground. And provision had been made to counter the effect of the fall as far as man was concerned.
Now in chapter 12 comes a reminder of the next consequence of the fall, the way in which womankind was affected. Childbirth was now inevitably connected with ‘uncleanness’. For, as far as the woman was concerned, it was in the discomforts of childbirth that God had found a way of punishing her because of her part in the fall (Genesis 3.16). It would be a reminder every time a child was born that a sinner was being born into a sinful world.
So in every case of childbirth there was no avoiding uncleanness. It was not a question of choice. It was something that had to be endured. Birth inevitably involved sin because the birth process had been affected by sin, and the child being born into the world was now subject to sin. Indeed he or she would be a sinner. And therefore the very process of birth came short of ‘perfection and must be ‘unclean’. And that is why the woman, being in the process of producing a sinner, was during that process prevented from being able for a while to approach the holiness of God.
Men and women saw this as being made visibly quite clear. When the child was born it was covered with blood and mucus. It came out ‘unclean’. This point does not contradict the statement that every child which opens the womb shall be called holy to Yahweh (Luke 2.23). This means that it is seen as set apart for Yahweh’s service, not that it is ‘ritually holy’ at that point. In the mercy of God while it enters the world ‘unclean’ it is, if an Israelite, also set apart as His).’
We all have to stop and recognize in all of these regulations the grace of God. It was recognized that that uncleanness would be temporary and not permanent, and therefore that through following due processes the woman and the child could come out of their period of uncleanness in childbearing, back into cleanness and the light of God’s holiness, with all traces of sin being put behind them. That is the process described here.
So as a result of the fall into sin by Eve she was to produce children who would come into this world unclean. This was something that she would have to undergo. There was no avoiding it. In order to produce new life she must be willing to go through the uncleanness of childbirth. It was intended to bring home to all the awfulness of sin. We who live today might not like it but that is the way it is.
So the woman’s problems after birth were to be seen as part of God’s indictment of the first woman (Genesis 3.16) from whom she was descended. She was to recognize that the reason that she was no longer in the sphere of painless and untroubled birth, and that her body would manifest that fact during the process of birth and after, was both because of the sin that was past, and because even more sin was by it seen as coming into the world, and even more death by sin. Every unclean new birth shouted out and proclaimed the sinfulness of man, and stressed that God does judge sin, even though that judgment might have been partially delayed. It was the explanation of all the pain and unpleasantness that the woman went through.
Fruitfulness in childbearing would rightly be seen as fulfilling God’s purpose for women at creation (Genesis 1.28). All was going on as it should. But the result of sin would also be seen as intervening and could not be overlooked and thrust aside. It would result in that fruitfulness coming about in unpleasant ways as a result of God’s judgment.
The discharges were thus seen as being a reminder of the result of the fall, as being an indication of woman’s coming short of God’s ‘perfection’ because of that fall, and therefore as ‘uncleanness’. They were a reminder not only of the sinfulness of men and women, but of the certainty of judgment and of the fact that God did take note of sin, and that without God’s grace man would have no hope.
They were also a reminder of what birth meant. It meant that another sinner had been born into the world (Psalm 51.5; 58.3). This especially comes out in the need for the spilling of blood through the circumcision of a male child, and in the need for the whole burnt offering and purification for sin offering which were to be made whether the child was male or female (verse 6). It could not be overlooked that this babe from her womb shared in the sinfulness of Adam and Eve.
And yet it also testified that both she and the child still had a future because of the mercy of God. And that was why, once the discharges had cleared up, due offerings of gratitude, dedication, tribute and repentance would be made. It should be noted that the uncleanness of the child resulted from that of the mother. It was not unclean in itself, nor is it said to specifically require atonement. Its uncleanness came from contact with the mother. But it would certainly require atonement, along with all Israel, in the future, once it was a part of the congregation of Israel.
So this period of uncleanness in child bearing is actually a period of joy because a child had been born into the world, a period of remembrance and endurance because of what had been lost because of man’s first sin, and a period of restoration and hope as they contemplated the future. It was a reminder that God’s judgment against sin was real, and would continue, and yet a period of gratitude to God that there was a way out of the uncleanness. God had not left them in despair. Every day, somewhere in Israel, this reminder would be proclaimed forth when the birth of a child was announced.
12 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If a woman has conceived, and borne a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her customary impurity she shall be unclean.
A thing to remember is that circumcision was not done in the wilderness. The specification was seen as preparation for a future in the land of Canaan.
It is emphasized that the woman who gave birth was to be seen as unclean ‘for seven days’, as she was in the case of menstruation (the days of her impurity. We see here that it was seen as a reminder of prospective death and as indicating that the woman was in an ‘imperfect’ and life diminishing state, and therefore at the time a blemished state, is something that cannot be demonstrated. But clearly she was seen as at that time ‘not her whole self’, and in no condition to approach God. Through childbirth she was undergoing the consequences of the fall afresh. She was unclean.
The number seven is a divinely perfect period, seven days (or for a girl twice seven days), the number of days connected with creation, was to be allowed for her first recovery. It was a period of severe uncleanness. She was enduring all the consequences of the fall. And ladies if you have even gone through child birth I think you would say an ‘Amen’ to the exhaustive experience of giving birth.
The number seven was a number used of divinely perfect and completed activity, and ‘seven days’ was the period of creation, Thus it may here have been seen as being in order that God might do His re-creating work in restoring her. It fitted in with circumcising a boy child on the eighth day.
This period then emphasized man’s fallen state. During this period of serious uncleanness the woman would be left relatively alone, helped only by those women (such as her mother) who were prepared to become unclean by helping her. And the child too would be unclean, if only because of contact with its mother. But at the end of the seven days, in the case of a boy, the severe uncleanness would be seen as at an end, to be followed on the eighth day with a ceremony in which blood was spilt, and in which the child was welcomed into the people of God. Hopefully by this stage the blood flow would have ceased.
3 And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
At the stage in fact when this law was first communicated, circumcision could not take place. It would have been unwise while constantly on the move. The instructions were thus in the final analysis for when they settled in the land. They were in the light of the soon anticipated entry into Canaan.
Looked at in practical terms the seven days would also be necessary because time had to be given to her for recovery before she attended at the circumcision of a male child. God graciously provided so that the woman could be fit enough to be present. He was her son too.
Circumcision was a sign of the covenant that God made with Abraham in Genesis 17. Every male child who was to be seen as a true born Israelite had to be circumcised, and by it he became a member of the covenant people. It was also open to ‘strangers’ who wished to eventually become ‘true born Israelites’ (Exodus 12.48).
4 She shall then continue in the blood of her purification thirty-three days. She shall not touch any hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled.
The 7 days would follow a period, in the case of a male child of a further thirty three days, making forty days in all. But she was certainly seen as unclean for she was excluded from the tabernacle and could not touch any hallowed thing. Thus she could not partake of peace sacrifices. These were the days of her purifying when hopefully the discharges would eventually cease. Most women would be grateful for this period during which they could rest and recover.
The lesson that comes over sharply in all this is the emphasis on the sinfulness of man as a result of the fall. It stressed that even when born into the world a baby comes, not into an innocent world, but into a world of sin. It is, of course, a great joy, but because of sin in the human race it is born to labor in the sweat of its brow, and it must be redeemed. The other lesson is God’s goodness in looking after the woman’s wellbeing.
5 ‘But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her customary impurity, and she shall continue in the blood of her purification sixty-six days.
On the case of a female child she would first be severely unclean for two sevens. And then her purifying was to take twice as long. This last period does in fact reflect the fact that the discharges in the case of a female baby would invariably be longer than for a male, and may then indeed become confused with her first menstruation after childbirth.
6 ‘When the days of her purification are fulfilled, whether for a son or a daughter, she shall bring to the priest a lamb of the first year as a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove as a sin offering, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 7 Then he shall offer it before the LORD, and make atonement for her. And she shall be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who has borne a male or a female.
Once the woman had safely reached the end of her period of purification she was then to bring a one year old lamb (as for the daily sacrifice) and a young pigeon or turtledove to the priest for him to offer on the altar before Yahweh, ‘to make atonement for her’. This makes clear the connection with required atonement. And note the emphasis on her blood-flow. It is that primarily that has to be cleansed. By giving birth she has released blood, and that has made her unclean. But what it signified was also in mind.
The lamb was for a whole burnt offering. It was an act of gratitude, tribute, dedication and atonement. The bird was for a purification of sin offering. She needed forgiveness and reconciliation with God. By bringing her child into the world she had introduced further sin into the world and increased the burden of sin. She shared the responsibility of Eve.
8 ‘and if she is not able to bring a lamb, then she may bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons—one as a burnt offering and the other as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.’”
Provision was made for a lesser whole burnt offering for those who were unable to afford a lamb, a bird could be offered as a replacement. It was this that Mary offered for Jesus (Luke 2.24.
It should be noted finally that neither the woman nor the child were seen as ‘unclean’ in themselves. (We are not talking about sin but about ritual uncleanness). They were unclean because of the processes through which they went.
