Jamieson, Fausset and Brown on Leviticus 12:2

CHAPTER 12

Le 12:1-8. Woman's Uncleanness by Childbirth.

2. If a woman, &c.--The mother of a boy was ceremonially unclean for a week, at the end of which the child was circumcised (Ge 17:12; Ro 4:11-13); the mother of a girl for two weeks (Le 12:5)--a stigma on the sex (1Ti 2:14, 15) for sin, which was removed by Christ; everyone who came near her during that time contracted a similar defilement. After these periods, visitors might approach her though she was still excluded from the public ordinances of religion [Le 12:4].