For the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you, and to give up your enemies before you; therefore shall your camp be holy: that he sees no unclean thing in you, and turns away from you.
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
No uncleanness. This caution against suffering any filth in the camp, was to teach them to fly the filth of sin, which driveth God away from the soul. (Challoner) Those who have had the misfortune to fall into the sink of iniquity, must not fail to use the sharp instrument of compunction, with which they may hide the enormity of their crimes. (Haydock)
Incessanter terram mentis nostræ poenitentiæ dolore confodiat &.abscondat. (St. Gregory, Mor. iii. 13.)
In a camp where three million people were collected, if some such regulation had not been made, great and serious inconveniences would have ensued. The lawgiver, therefore, descends to several particulars which to us might appear minute; but besides the obvious meaning, which is very rational, the words convey other mystical instructions of the highest importance. God was pleased to assume the character of a powerful monarch, residing among his people, and hence every appearance of indecency must be removed. (Haydock)
