_A.M. 2514. B.C. 1490._ Rules whereby the priest was to judge of the leprosy, Leviticus 13:1. Directions concerning the leper, Leviticus 13:45; Leviticus 13:46. Concerning the leprosy in garments, Leviticus 13:47.... [ Continue Reading ]
This law is directed to Aaron as well as Moses, because he and his sons were to be judges, to determine, according to certain rules, what was clean and what unclean.... [ Continue Reading ]
_A rising, a scab, or bright spot_ The leprosy appeared in one of these three forms. Now, as these marks might sometimes be upon the skin when there was no leprosy, rules are here given whereby the priests might discern between a plague of leprosy and the resemblance of it; that accordingly they mig... [ Continue Reading ]
_The priest shall look on the plague_ In some dubious cases, the priest might find it convenient to take the judgment of physicians, or of persons who understood the theory of diseases better than himself; but, as he was to admit to or exclude from the sanctuary, he alone was to give judgment, and p... [ Continue Reading ]
_Seven days_ For greater assurance; to teach ministers not to be hasty in their judgments, but diligently to search and examine all things beforehand. _The plague_ is here put in the original for the _man that hath the plague._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Dark_ Contrary to the white colour of the leprosy. But the word may be rendered, _have contracted itself_, and thus the opposition seems to be most clear to the _spreading_ of itself. _He shall wash his clothes _ Though it was no leprosy, to teach us, that no sin is so small as not to need to be wa... [ Continue Reading ]
_When the plague of leprosy_ (symptoms thereof) _is in a man _ If the priest plainly see that it has reached not only the _skin_, and changed the _hair_, but eaten into the very flesh, so that he can see the whiteness there, as well as in the skin, he shall look upon it as an evident case, and witho... [ Continue Reading ]
_If the leprosy have covered all the flesh_ It may seem strange that a man who is all over leprous should be pronounced clean, and yet one who is but partially leprous should be unclean. To explain this it has been said, that when the disorder appeared only in some one part, or in a few parts, it di... [ Continue Reading ]
_When raw_ (Hebrew, _when living_) _flesh appeareth in him_ That is, when some of the flesh appears in its sound and natural state, the rest of the skin being white. This was a token of nature's being unable to throw out all the leprous humour into the skin, and of its working inwardly. Consequently... [ Continue Reading ]
_The raw flesh_ This is repeated again and again, because raw or living flesh might rather seem a sign of soundness, and the priest might easily be deceived by it, and therefore he was more narrowly to look into it.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Unto white_ As it is usual with sores, when they begin to be healed, the skin, which is white, coming upon the flesh.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Dark_ Or, _and be contracted. A plague_ Or, _the plague_ of leprosy, of which he is speaking. _A hot burning A burning of fire_, by the touch of any hot iron, or burning coals, which naturally makes an ulcer or sore in which the following spot is.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Of the burning_ Arising from the burning, mentioned Leviticus 13:24.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Upon the head or beard_ Pliny tells us, that a kind of disease came into Italy in the middle of the reign of Tiberius Cesar, which commonly began in the chin, and was therefore called _mentagra_, and was so filthy, that any death was preferable to it. It was a foul tetter, scab, or scurf, not unlik... [ Continue Reading ]
_A yellow thin hair_ The leprosy in the body turned the hair white, in the head or beard it turned it yellow. And if a man's hair was yellow before, this might easily be distinguished from the rest, either by the thinness or smallness of it, or by its peculiar kind of yellow, for there are divers ki... [ Continue Reading ]
Leviticus 13:31 ; LEVITICUS 13:33. _No black hair_ For had that appeared, it had ended the doubt, the black hair being a sign of soundness and strength of nature, as this yellow hair was a sign of unsoundness. _He shall be shaven_ For the more certain discovery of the growth or stay of the plague.... [ Continue Reading ]
_He shall not seek_ He need not search for the hair, or any other sign, the spreading of it being a sure sign of leprosy.... [ Continue Reading ]
Leviticus 13:39 ; LEVITICUS 13:42. _If the spots be darkish white_ When there was no other symptom but that of whiteness in the skin, the priest was to be cautious not to pronounce it a leprosy, unless the spots were perfectly bright; for if there was any cloudiness in them, it was not a leprosy. An... [ Continue Reading ]
_His clothes shall be rent_ Whatever Israelite was found and declared by the priest to be a leper, was to be in the condition of a mourner, and in all respects to behave as such, that he might sensibly declare his afflicted state. 1st, His clothes were to be rent in the upper and fore parts, which w... [ Continue Reading ]
_He shall dwell alone_ For his humiliation, to prevent the infection of others, and to show the danger of converse with spiritual lepers, or notorious sinners. _Without the camp shall his habitation be_ See Numbers 5:2. In after times they were shut out of the cities, as now out of the camp, (2 King... [ Continue Reading ]
Leprosy in garments and houses is unknown in these times and places, which is not strange, there being some diseases peculiar to some ages and countries. And that such a thing was among the Jews, cannot reasonably be doubted; for, if Moses had been a deceiver, a man of his wisdom would not have expo... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the warp or woof_ A learned man renders it, _in the outside, or in the inside of it._ If the signification of these words be doubtful now, as some of those concerning the living creatures and precious stones are confessed to be, it is not material to us, this law being abolished; it sufficeth th... [ Continue Reading ]
_If it have not changed its colour_ If washing doth not take away that vicious colour, and restore it to its own native colour.... [ Continue Reading ]
_This is the law of the plague of leprosy in a garment_ The learned confess that this leprosy in a garment was a sign and a miracle in Israel; an extraordinary punishment inflicted by the divine power, as a token of great displeasure against a person or family. The garment suspected to be tainted wa... [ Continue Reading ]