SEV Biblia, Chapter 5:4
Y lo hicieron así los hijos de Israel, los echaron fuera del campamento; como el SEÑOR dijo a Moisés, así lo hicieron los hijos de Israel.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Numbers 5:4
Verse 4. And the children of Israel-put them out] This is the earliest account we have of such separations; and probably this ordinance gave the first idea of a hospital, where all those who are afflicted with contagious disorders are put into particular wards, under medical treatment. Though no mention be made of the situation, circumstances, &c., of those expelled persons, we may certainly infer that they were treated with that humanity which their distressed state required. Though sinners must be separated from the Church of God, yet they should be treated with affectionate regard, because they may be reclaimed. It is too often the case when a man backslides from the way of truth, he is abandoned by all; finding his case desperate, he plunges yet deeper into the mire of sin, and the man who, with tender treatment, might have been reclaimed, becomes incurably hardened. One class says, he cannot finally fall, and shall in due time be restored; another class says, he may finally fall and utterly perish. If the unfortunate person be restored, his recovery is taken as a proof of the first doctrine; if he be not, his wretched end is considered a proof of the second. In the first case the person himself may presume on his restoration as a point infallibly determined in the Divine counsel; or in the second, he may consider his case hopeless, and so abandon himself to profligacy and desperation. Thus both parties leave him, and both opinions (misunderstood certainly) render him secure or desperate; and in either case totally inactive in behalf of his own soul. Who is he that properly estimates the worth of one immortal spirit? He who does will at once feel that, in a state of probation, any man may fall through sin, and any sinner may be renewed again unto repentance, through the infinitely meritorious sacrifice, and all powerfully efficacious grace, of Christ. This truth properly felt equally precludes both presumption and despair, and will induce the followers of God to be active in preserving those who have escaped from the corruption that is in the world, and make them diligent to recover those who have turned back to earth and sin.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 4. And the children of Israel did so, and put them without the camp , etc.] Aben Ezra observes, that this was done immediately before they journeyed, and that those that were defiled journeyed between the standard of Ephraim and the standard of Dan; but this, he says, was by way of conjecture, since it is not expressed: as the Lord spake unto Moses, so did the children of Israel ; they were obedient in this particular.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-10 - The camp was to be cleansed. The purity of the church must be kept a carefully as the peace and order of it. Every polluted Israelite mus be separated. The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable. The greater profession of religion any house or family makes, the more the are obliged to put away iniquity far from them. If a man overreach of defraud his brother in any matter, it is a trespass against the Lord who strictly charges and commands us to do justly. What is to be don when a man's awakened conscience charges him with guilt of this kind though done long ago? He must confess his sin, confess it to God confess it to his neighbour, and take shame to himself; though it go against him to own himself in a lie, yet he must do it. Satisfactio must be made for the offence done to God, as well as for the los sustained by the neighbour; restitution in that case is not enoug without faith and repentance. While that which is wrongly gotten i knowingly kept, the guilt remains on the conscience, and is not don away by sacrifice or offering, prayers or tears; for it is the same ac of sin persisted in. This is the doctrine of right reason, and of the word of God. It detects hypocrites, and directs the tender conscienc to proper conduct, which, springing from faith in Christ, will make wa for inward peace.
Original Hebrew
ויעשׂו 6213 כן 3651 בני 1121 ישׂראל 3478 וישׁלחו 7971 אותם 853 אל 413 מחוץ 2351 למחנה 4264 כאשׁר 834 דבר 1696 יהוה 3068 אל 413 משׁה 4872 כן 3651 עשׂו 6213 בני 1121 ישׂראל׃ 3478
