For that he sinned by the dead— i.e. Contracted a legal impurity, by touching or being near a dead body; which, though it was involuntary, yet was a breach of the ceremonial law, and therefore thus to be purged. The reason of this was, according to the most judicious rabbis, to make men more cautious how they contracted any defilement: whence that famous saying among them, Diligence begets caution, and caution purity, and purity holiness.

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