8 `And if her hand find not the sufficiency of a sheep, then she hath taken two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, one for a burnt-offering, and one for a sin-offering, and the priest hath made atonement for her, and she hath been cleansed.'
And when the days of their purification were fulfilled, according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem, to present to the Lord, as it hath been written in the Law of the Lord, -- `Every male opening a womb shall be called holy to the Lord,' and to give a sacrifice, according to that said in the Law of the Lord, `A pair of turtle-doves, or two young pigeons.'
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Commentary on Leviticus 12 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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].
6-8. the days of her purifying—Though the occasion was of a festive character, yet the sacrifices appointed were not a peace offering, but a burnt offering and sin offering, in order to impress the mind of the parent with recollections of the origin of sin, and that the child inherited a fallen and sinful nature. The offerings were to be presented the day after the period of her separation had ended—that is, forty-first for a boy, eighty-first for a girl.
8. bring two turtles, &c.—(See on Le 5:6). This was the offering made by Mary, the mother of Jesus, and it affords an incontestable proof of the poor and humble condition of the family (Lu 2:22-24).