for the LORD your God walks in the middle of your camp, to deliver you, and to give up your enemies before you. Therefore your camp shall be holy, that he may not see an unclean thing in you, and turn away from you.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 14. No uncleanness. This caution against suffering any filth in the camp was to teach them to fly the filth of sin, which driveth God away from the soul. Challoner. Those who have had the misfortune to fall into the sink of iniquity, must not fail to use the sharp instrument of compunction, with which they may hide the enormity of their crimes. Bible.—Incessanter terram mentis nostræ pœnitentiæ dolore confodiat & … abscondat. Saint Gregory Mor. iii. 13.—In a camp where three million people were collected, if some such regulation had not been made, great and serious inconveniences would have ensued. The lawgiver, therefore, descends to several particulars which to us might appear minute; but besides the obvious meaning, which is very rational, the words convey other mystical instructions of the highest importance.—God was pleased to assume to character of a powerful monarch, residing among his people, and hence every appearance of indecency must be removed. Bible.