John Gill Bible Commentary

And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up,.... It was usual with the Jews to call the womb, in which the child is formed, "a fountain" (s); and because, from hence, issued the blood in a menstruous and profluvious person, they called it, as here, , "the fountain of her blood" (t); and sometimes use the same phrase of the drying up of it, as in this place: they say (u), when a woman is searched and found to be pure, she is forbidden her house, , "until her fountain be dried up"; so that as no blood issued from it, there was none in it, and which was now this woman's case, as she found; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague: she not only found by that quick alteration there was in her animal spirits, which were now free and vigorous; but she perceived, in that part of her body, from whence the issue sprung, that she was perfectly well, and that the disorder was entirely gone, which had been for so many years a sore affliction to her, and a severe correction and chastisement of her, as the word used implies. It properly signifies a "scourge", as every affliction is, a scourge for sin; and very likely this woman's disease was on the same account: sometimes afflictions are God's scourges in a way of wrath, and sometimes in a fatherly way, in love: "for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth", Heb 12:6, and who, as he wounds, he heals, and which is sensibly perceived by his people. The word "plague" carries in it something more dreadful, and fitly enough expresses the nature of sin, which is a pestilential disease; the corruption of nature, indwelling sin is called the "plague of the heart", Kg1 8:38. It is a loathsome disease, and without the grace of God, a mortal one; the body of sin, is a body of death; and all sin is of the same nature and kind; the end of it is destruction and death: the healing of it is the forgiveness of sin, which is through the blood of Christ, and the application of it to the soul; which, when made, is sensibly felt, for it immediately produces spiritual joy, peace, and comfort: this makes the bones, which were broken, to rejoice; this bids every son and daughter of the Lord God Almighty to be of good cheer; it causes the inhabitants of Zion to hold their peace, and no more say they are sick, because their sins are forgiven them. And a man may as easily perceive when his spiritual maladies are healed in this way, as when he is cured of any bodily disorder. (s) Maimon. Issure Bia, c. 4. sect. 20, 22. & 5. 3. & 6. 1. Misn. Nidda, c. 2. sect. 5. (t) T. Hieros. Nidda, fol. 50. 2. Moses Kotsensis Mitzvot Tora, pr. neg. 111. (u) T. Hieros. Nidda, fol. 48. 4.