When the sun goes down he shall be clean, and afterward he may eat of the holy things, because they are his food.
Those that had a natural blemish, though they were forbidden to do the priests' work, were yet allowed to eat of the holy things: and the Jewish writers say that "to keep them from idleness they were employed in the wood-room, to pick out that which was worm-eaten, that it might not be used in the fire upon the altar; they might also be employed...
Commenting on Leviticus 22:1-9
And when the sun is down he shall be clean,.... Having washed himself in water, otherwise not, though the sun may be set: and shall afterwards eat of the holy things; the families of the priests lived upon: because it is his food: his common food, his ordinary diet, that by which he subsists, having nothing else to live upon; this being the ordination of...
Lev 22:1-16 Reverence for Things Sanctified. - The law on this matter was, (1) that no priest who had become unclean was to touch or eat them (Lev 22:2-9), and (2) that no one was to eat them who was not a member of a priestly family (Lev 22:10-16).
Commenting on Leviticus 22:1-16