There were certain men who were unclean because of the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 6. Some. Hebrew “and there was men,” a solecism, rejected by the Sam. and Arab. copies. Houbigant.—Man. That is, by having touched, or come near, a dead body, out of which the soul was departed. Challoner.—Such were forbidden to offer any sacrifice. Leviticus 22:4. Yet they could not refrain from burying the dead. Philo. de vita Mos. 3. As, therefore, the action was far from being criminal, and they had partaken of the paschal lamb without restriction in Egypt, and heard that God required all to offer this sacrifice, under pain of excision, (verse 13,) they reasonably wished to know how they were to act, particularly as the 14th of Nisan alone was appointed for this sacrifice, and they could not be purified in less than seven days. If the law, by which they were excluded from the camp, (Calmet. 5:2,) were already published, they consulted Moses by some friend. The Rabbins suppose, that those who buried Nadab and Abiu, are meant. Calmet.—The common people did not properly offer a sacrifice, though they might kill the victim. D.