After Childbirth
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘If a woman conceives, and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her monthly period she shall be unclean. 3 In the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. 4 She shall continue in the blood of purification thirty-three days. She shall not touch any holy thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying are completed. 5 But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her period; and she shall continue in the blood of purification sixty-six days. 6 “‘When the days of her purification are completed for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the door of the Tent of Meeting, a year old lamb for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove, for a sin offering. 7 He shall offer it before Yahweh, and make atonement for her; then she shall be cleansed from the fountain of her blood. “‘This is the law for her who bears, whether a male or a female. 8 If she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons: the one for a burnt offering, and the other for a sin offering. The priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.’”
A mother is separated for a period after birth and brings an offering, and the law's last provision is for the woman who cannot afford it.
The chapter is eight verses long and it has caused more offense than almost anything else in the book, so it should be read carefully.
A woman is unclean seven days after bearing a son and continues in the blood of purification thirty-three days Leviticus 12:4; for a daughter the periods are doubled Leviticus 12:5.
Nothing in the passage calls childbirth sinful. The category is the same one that covers contact with a corpse, a discharge, or a skin condition — the boundaries of life and death, where blood is involved. Every one of those makes a person unclean, and none of them is a moral fault.
What the period actually produces is worth stating plainly. For forty or eighty days a new mother is exempt from every religious obligation, may not be required at the sanctuary, and is not to be touched for ritual purposes. In a society where women's work was unrelenting, the law hands her a protected convalescence with divine authority behind it.
The doubling for a daughter is not explained anywhere in Scripture, and no explanation should be manufactured. What can be observed is that the offering at the end is identical for both Leviticus 12:7 — this is the law for her who bears, whether a male or a female — so whatever the different periods mark, it is not a difference in the child's standing before God.
The circumcision of a son on the eighth day Leviticus 12:3 is placed inside the mother's law, and it is the only positive commandment in the chapter.
At the end she brings a lamb and a bird. And then, as everywhere in this book: if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons Leviticus 12:8.
That provision is the reason this obscure chapter is quoted in the Gospels. When Mary came to the temple she brought a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons Luke 2:24 — the poor woman's rate. The family of Jesus could not afford the lamb, and the law had made sure that did not matter.
settled What this mark means