Leviticus 10:10

And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) And that ye may put difference.—The motive here assigned for their abstinence from intoxicating liquor is, that by keeping sober they might be able to discriminate between the legal and illegal points in the prescribed observances, which required the greatest care. Thus, for instance, the rules as to which places and days and sundry portions of the offerings were holy or common, or as to holy fire and common fire, which Nadab and Abihu violated; or about ceremonially clean and unclean men, women, animals, and utensils. (See Ezekiel 44:23.)

Benson Commentary

Leviticus 10:10-11. Between holy and unholy — Persons and things, which Nadab and Abihu did not, mistaking unholy or common fire for that which was sacred and appointed of God for their use. Ye may teach — Which drunken persons are very unfit to do.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:8-11 Do not drink wine or strong drink. During the time they ministered, the priests were forbidden it. It is required of gospel ministers, that they be not given to wine, 1Ti 3:3. It is, Lest ye die; die when ye are in drink. The danger of death, to which we are continually exposed, should engage all to be sober.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Unholy ... unclean - Common, as not consecrated; and what would occasion defilement by being touched or eaten. Compare Acts 10:14.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8-11. Do not drink wine nor strong drink—This prohibition, and the accompanying admonitions, following immediately the occurrence of so fatal a catastrophe [Le 10:1, 2], has given rise to an opinion entertained by many, that the two disobedient priests were under the influence of intoxication when they committed the offense which was expiated only by their lives. But such an idea, though the presumption is in its favor, is nothing more than conjecture.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Persons and things, which Nadab and Abihu did not, mistaking unholy or common fire for that which was sacred and appointed by God for their use.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy,.... That being sober they might be able to distinguish between the one and the other; which a drunken man, having his mind and senses disturbed, is not capable of; as between holy and unholy persons, and between holy and unholy things; particularly, as Aben Ezra interprets it, between a sacred place and one that is common, and between a holy day and a common week day; the knowledge and memory of which may be lost through intemperance; and so that may be done in a place and on a day which ought not to be done, or that omitted on a day and in a place which ought to be done:

and between unclean and clean; between unclean men and women, beasts and fowls, and clean ones; and between unclean things in a ceremonial sense, and those that are clean, which a man in liquor may be no judge of: hence, as the above writer observes, after this section follow laws concerning fowls clean and unclean, the purification of a woman after childbirth, the leprosy in men, garments and houses, and concerning profluvious and menstruous persons; all which the priests were to be judges of, and therefore ought to be sober.

Geneva Study Bible

And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean;

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10, 11. This passage may well have an immediate relation to the preceding context, as meaning that perfect sobriety was required in order to enable them to discriminate between ‘holy’ and ‘common’ and to give right Torah. Others have thought that the words in the last clause of Leviticus 10:11 ‘the Lord hath spoken’ shew that it is not connected with Leviticus 10:8, and that Leviticus 10:9 seems marked off by its last clause from what follows. Leviticus 10:10 would form an appropriate introduction to chs. 11–15.

Driver and White (Haupt’s SBOT., ad loc.) think that something may have fallen out here.

(5) The law of eating the holy things (12–15)

The reference is to the Meal-Offering and Peace-Offering of Leviticus 9:17-18. The remainder of the Meal-Offering, after the handful therefrom had been burnt, belonged to the priests, Leviticus 2:2-3, Leviticus 6:16-18. Being most holy, it was eaten only by priests in a holy place here specified as ‘beside the altar.’ Cp. Leviticus 6:16; Leviticus 6:26; ‘in the court of the tent of meeting.’ The priestly portions of the Peace-Offering might be eaten by the families of the priests in a clean place, of course only by those who were ritually clean (Leviticus 7:20-21). The Sin-Offering when eaten, being most holy, was treated as the Meal-Offering. See Leviticus 6:24-29.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - Wine and other intoxicating liquors (שֵׁכר, whence the Greek word σίκερα, Luke 1:13, was made from dates, or barley, or honey) are forbidden to the priests during their ministrations, that they may pat a difference between holy and unholy; that is, that their minds may not be confused, but be capable of distinguishing between right and wrong, what ought and what ought not to be done. Nadab and Abihu, on the contrary, had not distinguished between the sacred and profane fire, or between God's commands and their own unregulated impulses. If they had partaken too freely of the wine provided for the drink offerings, their sin would be similar to that of the Corinthians in their abuse of the Lord's Supper. As to the use of wine by the minister of God under the New Testament, see 1 Timothy 3:2, 8; 1 Timothy 5:23. The spiritual emotion, which, in the service of God, shows itself in pouring out the feelings in "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," is contrasted, in Ephesians 5:18, 19, with the physical excitement caused by wine, the former being commended and the latter forbidden. Leviticus 10:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, Jehovah still further commanded Aaron and his sons not to drink wine and strong drink when they entered the tabernacle to perform service there, on pain of death, as a perpetual statute for their generations (Exodus 12:17), that they might be able to distinguish between the holy and common, the clean and unclean, and also to instruct the children of Israel in all the laws which God had spoken to them through Moses (ו...ו, Leviticus 10:10 and Leviticus 10:11, et...et, both...and also). Shecar was an intoxicating drink made of barley and dates or honey. הל, profanus, common, is a wider or more comprehensive notion than טמא, unclean. Everything was common (profane) which was not fitted for the sanctuary, even what was allowable for daily use and enjoyment, and therefore was to be regarded as clean. The motive for laying down on this particular occasion a prohibition which was to hold good for all time, seems to lie in the event recorded in Leviticus 10:1, although we can hardly infer from this, as some commentators have done, that Nadab and Abihu offered the unlawful incense-offering in a state of intoxication. The connection between their act and this prohibition consisted simply in the rashness, which had lost the clear and calm reflection that is indispensable to right action.