Leviticus 13:1--15:33
swelling <07613> [rising. or, swelling. a scab.]
diseased infection <06883 05061> [the plague of leprosy.]
{Tzar„ƒth,} the Leprosy, from the Greek [lepra,] from [lepis,] a scale; so called, because in this disease the body is covered with thin white scales, so as to give it the appearance of snow. The leprosy is a dreadful, contagious disorder, common in Egypt and Syria, and generally manifests itself at first in the manner described in the text. Its commencement is imperceptible; there appearing only a few reddish spots on the skin, which are not attended with pain or any other symptom, but cannot be removed. It increases imperceptibly, and continues for some years to be more and more manifest. The spots become larger, spread over the whole skin, and are sometimes rather raised, though generally flat. When it increases the upper part of the nose swells, the nostrils distend, the nose becomes soft, swellings appear on the under jaws, the eyebrows are elevated, the ears grow thick, the ends of the fingers, feet, and toes, swell, the nails grow scaly, the joints of the hands and feet separate, the palms of hands and soles of the feet are ulcerated, and in its last stage the patient becomes horrible, and falls to pieces.
brought <0935> [he shall.]
examine ........................................ when .... examines <07200> [shall look.]
turned <02015> [turned.]
deeper <06013> [deeper.]
unclean <02930> [pronounce.]
quarantine ...... infection <05462 05061> [shut up.]
clean .............. clean <02891> [pronounce.]
scab <04556> [a scab.]
wash <03526> [wash.]
examine ....... swelling ................... swelling <07200 07613> [shall see him.]
raw flesh <02416 01320 04241> [quick raw flesh. Heb. the quickening of living flesh.]
skin ...... covers .... skin <03680 05785> [cover all.]
disease <06883> [if the leprosy.]
It may seem strange that the partial leper should be pronounced unclean, and the person totally covered with the disease clean. This was probably owing to a different species or stage of the disease; the partial being contagious, the total not. That there are two different species, or degrees, of the disease described here, is sufficiently evident: in one, the person was all covered with a white enamelled scurf; in the other, there was a quick raw flesh in the risings. On this account, the one was deemed unclean, or contagious, the other not; for contact with the quick raw flesh would be more likely to communicate the disease, than the touch of the hard dry scurf. The ichor proceeding from the former, when brought into contact with the flesh of another, would soon be taken into constitution by means of the absorbent vessels; but where the surface was perfectly dry; the absorbent vessels of another, coming in contact with the diseased man, could imbibe nothing, and there was consequently but little or no danger of infection. This is the learned Dr. Mead's view of the subject; who thus accounts for the circumstances mentioned in the text.
clean <02889> [he is clean.]
boil <07822> [a boil.]
appears <04758> [in sight.]
quarantine .... seven <05462 07651> [shut him.]
infection <05061> [a plague. i,e., "The plague of leprosy."]
burn ........... burn <04348 0784> [a hot burning. Heb. a burning of fire.]
This is supposed to state the case of such as had been hurt by fire; which would leave a scar, in which the leprosy might appear, and which was to be distinguished by the rules here given.
turned white <03836 02015> [turned white.]
priest ........................... priest <03548> [then the priest.]
diseased infection <05061 06883> [it is the plague of leprosy. See on ver.]
scall <05424> [scall.]
seven days <07651 03117> [seven days.]
yellow hair <08181 06669> [yellow hair.]
seventh <07637> [the seventh.]
spread <06581> [be not.]
wash <03526> [and he shall.]
bright spots <0934> [if the bright.]
harmless <0933> [a freckled spot.]
The word {bohak,} from the Syriac {behak,} to be white, or shining, here rendered "a freckled spot," is used by the Arabs to denote a kind of leprosy, of which Niebuhr says, "{Bohak} is neither contagious nor dangerous. A black boy at Mocha, who was affected with this eruption, had here and there upon his body white spots. We were told that the use of sulphur had relieved this boy for a time, but had not entirely removed the disease." He adds subsequently from Forskal's papers, "The Arabs call a sort of leprosy, in which some little spots shew themselves here and there on the body, {behaq;} and it is without doubt the same as is named {bohak,} (Le ch. 13). They believe it to be so far from contagious, that one may sleep with a person affected without danger." "On the 15th day of May, 1765, I myself first saw the {Bohak} leprosy in a Jew at Mocha. The spots in this disease are of an unequal size. They do not shine; are not perceptibly higher than the skin; and do not change the colour of the hair. Their colour is an obscure white, inclining to red. The rest of the skin of the patient was darker than that of the people of the country in general; but the spots were not so white as the skin of an European, when not sun-burnt. The spots in this leprosy do not appear on the hands, or near the navel, but on the neck and face, yet not on that part where the hair grows thick. They gradually spread, and continue sometimes only about two months, but in some cases one or two years, and then disappear by degrees, of themselves. This disorder is neither contagious nor hereditary, nor does it occasion any inconvenience." Hence a person infected with the {bohak} is declared clean.
head <07218 04803> [hair is fallen off his head. Heb. head is pilled.]
unclean because <02930> [utterly unclean.]
infection <05061> [his plague.]
clothes <0899> [his clothes.]
head <07218> [and his head.]
cover <05844> [put.]
Unclean Unclean <02931> [Unclean.]
time <03117> [the days.]
outside <02351> [without.]
garment ............. garment <0899> [The garment.]
This leprosy in garments appears so strange to us, that it has induced some, with Bp. Patrick, to consider it as an extraordinary punishment inflicted by God upon the Israelites, as a sign of his high displeasure; while others consider the leprosy in clothes (and also houses) as having no relation to the leprosy in man. When Michaelis was considering the subject, he was told by a dealer in wool, that the wool of sheep which die of a disease, if it has not been shorn from the animal while living, is unfit to manufacture cloth, and liable to something like what Moses here describes, and which he imagines to be the plague of leprosy in garments. The whole account, however, as Dr. A. Clarke observes, seems to intimate that the garment was fretted by the contagion of the real leprosy; which it is probable was occasioned by a species of {animacula,} or vermin, burrowing in the skin, which we know to be the cause of the itch; these, by breeding in the garments, must necessarily multiply their kind, and fret the garments, i.e., corrode a portion of the finer parts, after the manner of moths, for their nourishment. The infection of garments has frequently been known to cause the worst species of scarlet fever, and even the plague; and those infected with {psora}, or itch animal, have communicated the disease even in six or seven years after the infection.
leather .... made ... leather <04399 05785> [thing made of. Heb. work of.]
leather ........ article ... leather <05785 03627> [thing of skin. Heb. vessel, or instrument. it is.]
malignant disease <06883 03992> [fretting leprosy.]
burn .................................. burned up <08313> [burn.]
malignant disease <06883 03992> [fretting leprosy.]
after <0310> [after.]
back side ... front side <01372 07146> [it be bare within or without. Heb. it be bald in the head thereof, or in the forehead thereof.]
burn up <08313> [shalt burn.]
wash .......... washed <03526> [be washed.]
The plague of leprosy was inflicted immediately from the hand of God, and came not from natural causes, as other diseases; and therefore must be managed according to a divine law. Miriam's leprosy, and Gehazi's and King Uzziah's were all the punishments of particular sins; and if generally it was so, no marvel there was so much care taken to distinguish it from a common distemper, that none might be looked upon as lying under this extraordinary token of Divine displeasure, but those that really were so.
law <08451> [the law.]
day <03117> [in the day.]
brought <0935> [He shall.]
go <03318> [go forth.]
Lepers were obliged to live in a detached situation, separate from other people, and to keep themselves actually at a distance from them. They were distinguished by a peculiar dress; and if any person approached, they were bound to give him warning, by crying out, Unclean! unclean!
outside ... camp <02351 04264> [out of.]
healed <07495> [be healed.]
two .... birds <08147 06833> [two birds. or, sparrows.]
The word {tzippor,} from the Arabic {zaphara,} to fly, is used in the Scriptures to denote birds of every species, particularly small birds. But it is often used in a more restricted sense, as the Hebrew writers assert, to signify the sparrow. Aquinas says the same; and Jerome renders it here the sparrow. So the Greek [strouthia,] in Matthew and Luke, which signifies a sparrow, is rendered by the Syriac translator {tzipparin}, the same as the Hebrew {tzipporim}. Nor is it peculiar to the Hebrews to give the same name to the sparrow and to fowls of the largest size; for Nicander calls the hen [strouthos katoikados,] the domestic sparrow, and both Plautus and Ausonius call the ostrich, {passer marinus,} "the marine sparrow." It is evident, however, that the word in this passage signifies birds in general; for if the sparrow was a clean bird, there was no necessity for commanding a clean one to be taken, since every one of the species was ceremonially clean; but if it was unclean, then it could not be called clean.
cedar <0730> [cedar.]
crimson <08144> [scarlet.]
hyssop <0231> [hyssop.]
clay vessel <03627 02789> [earthen vessel.]
live bird ........................... live bird ....... bird ..... fresh <06833 02416> [the living bird.]
live ........................ dip ..... live ............ fresh <02881 02416> [dip them.]
sprinkle <05137> [sprinkle.]
seven times <07651 06471> [seven times.]
cleansed ....... clean <02891> [pronounce.]
live <02416> [let.]
open countryside <06440 07704> [into the open field. Heb. upon the face of the field.]
wash ... clothes <03526 0899> [wash his.]
bathe ... water <07364 04325> [wash himself.]
live <03427> [and shall.]
seven days <07651 03117> [seven days.]
shave .... hair .......... hair ... he <01548 08181> [shave all.]
bathe ... body <01320 07364> [wash his flesh.]
Lictenstein states that "among the Koossas, (a nation of South Africa,) there are certain prevailing notions respecting moral [ceremonial] uncleanness. All children are unclean till they are admitted among grown-up persons (which happens with the males through the various ceremonies attending circumcision); all lying-in women are unclean for the first month; all men who have lost their wives, for a fortnight, and all widows for a month; a mother who has lost a child, for two days; all persons who have been present at a death, the men returning from a battle, etc. No one may have intercourse with such an unclean person, till he has washed himself, rubbed his body with fresh paint, and rinsed his mouth with milk. But he must not do this till after the lapse of a certain time, fixed by general consent for each particular case, and during this time he must wholly refrain from washing, painting, or drinking milk."
eighth day <03117 08066> [eighth day.]
take <03947> [take.]
lambs <03532> [he lambs.]
lamb <03535> [ewe lamb.]
yearling female <01323 08141> [of the first year. Heb. the daughter of her year. three tenth.]
grain offering <04503> [a meat offering.]
olive oil .... log ... olive oil <03849 08081> [log of oil.]
guilt offering <0817> [trespass.]
them .... wave offering <05130 08573> [wave them.]
place .............. sanctuary <04725> [in the place.]
sin offering .............. sin offering <02403> [as the sin.]
sanctuary ................ most holy <06944> [it is most holy.]
remainder <03498> [the remnant.]
atonement <03722> [make an atonement.]
poor <01800> [poor.]
sufficient <03027> [cannot. Heb. his hand reach not. one lamb.]
wave offering <08573> [to be waved. Heb. for a waving.]
two .... two <08147> [two turtle doves.]
{Tor,} the turtle or ring-dove, so called by an onomatopoeia from its cooing, as in Greek [trugon], Latin, {turtur} and English, turtle. It is a species of the dove or pigeon, here called {yonah,} and in the Syriac {yauno,} from the verb to oppress, afflict, because of its being particularly defenceless, and exposed to rapine and violence. The dove is a genus of birds too well known to need a particular description; and of which there are several species besides the turtle-dove; as the wood pigeon, tame pigeon, and others. The dove is universally allowed to be one of the most beautiful objects in nature. The brilliancy of her plumage, the splendour of her eye, the innocence of her look, the excellence of her dispositions, and the purity of her manners, have been the theme of admiration and praise in every age. To the snowy whiteness of her wings, and the rich golden hues that adorn her neck, the inspired Psalmist alludes in most elegant strains. (Ps 68:13.) The voice of the dove is particularly tender and plaintive, and bears a striking resemblance to the groan of a person in distress; to which the inspired bards frequently allude. (Isa 38:14; 59:11; Eze 7:16.) Her native dwelling is in the caves or hollows of the rock; allusions to which fact also occur in the Sacred Writings, (So 2:14; Jer 48:28.) Her manners are as engaging as her form is elegant, and her plumage rich and beautiful. She is the chosen emblem of simplicity, gentleness, chastity, and feminine timidity, and for this reason, as well as from their abounding in the East, they were probably chosen as offerings by Jehovah.
<03027> [whose hand.]
enter <0935> [When.]
give ......... put <05414> [which I.]
give ......... put ... diseased infection <05061 06883 05414> [I put the plague of leprosy.]
It was probably from this text, that the leprosy has been in general considered to be a supernatural disease, inflicted immediately by God himself; but it cannot be inferred from this expression, as it is well known, that in Scripture, God is frequently represented as doing what, in the course of his providence, he only permits to be done.
infection <05061> [a plague.]
that ..... cleared <06437> [empty. or, prepare. be not made.]
The consideration of the circumstances will exhibit the importance and the propriety of the Mosaic ordinance on the subject of the house leprosy. 1. Moses ordained that the owner of a house, when any suspicious spots appeared on the walls, should be bound to give notice of it, in order that the house might be inspected; and that person, as in the case of the human leprosy, was to be the priest, whose duty it was. Now this would serve to check the mischief at its very origin, and make every one attentive to observe it. 2. On notice being given, the priest was to inspect the house, but the occupant had liberty to remove everything previously out of it; and that this might be done, the priest was empowered to order it ex officio; for whatever was found within a house declared unclean, became unclean along with it. 3. If, on the first inspection, the complaint did not appear wholly without foundation, but suspicious spots or dimples were actually to be seen, the house was to be shut up for seven days and then to be inspected anew. If, in this interval, the evil did not spread, it was considered as have been a circumstance merely accidental, and the house was not polluted; but if it had spread, it was not considered a harmless accident, but the real house leprosy; and the stones affected with it were to be broken out of the wall, and carried to an unclean place without the city, and the walls of the whole house here scraped and plastered anew. 4. If, after this, the leprosy broke out afresh, the whole house was to be pulled down, and the materials carried without the city. Moses therefore, never suffered a leprous house to stand. 5. If, on the other hand, the house being inspected a second time, was found clean, it was solemnly so declared, and offering made on the occasion; in order that every one might know for certain that it was not infected, and the public be freed from all fears on that score. By this law many evils were actually prevented--it would check the mischief in its very origin, and make every one attentive to observe it: the people would also guard against those impurities whence it arose, and thus the health be preserved and not suffer in an infected house. These Mosaic statues were intended to prevent infection by the sacred obligations of religion. Ceremonial laws many keep more conscientiously and sacredly than moral precepts.
stones ......... pulled <02502 068> [take away.]
outside ... city <02351 05892> [without the city.]
unclean place <02931 04725> [into an unclean place.]
tear <05422> [break down.]
unclean place <02931 04725> [into an unclean place.]
unclean <02930> [shall be unclean.]
wash ... clothes ......... wash ... clothes <0899 03526> [wash his clothes.]
enters <0935> [shall come in. Heb. in coming in shall come in, etc. because.]
law <08451> [the law.]
scall <05424> [scall.]
diseased <06883> [the leprosy.]
house <01004> [of a house.]
swelling <07613> [a rising.]
teach <03384> [teach.]
when .... unclean ... when .... clean <03117 02931 02889> [when it is unclean, and when it is clean. Heb. in the day of the unclean, and in the day of the clean. this is.]
Aaron <0175> [Aaron.]
Israelites <01121> [unto the.]
any man <0376> [when any man.]
It is not necessary to consider particularly the laws contained in this chapter, the letter of the text being in general sufficiently plain. It may, however, be observed, that from the pains which persons rendered unclean were obliged to take, the ablutions and separations which they must observe, and the privations to which they must in consequence be exposed, in the way of commerce, traffic, etc., these laws were admirably adapted to prevent contagion of every kind, by keeping the whole from the diseased, and to hinder licentious indulgences and excesses of every description.
discharge <02100> [running issue. or, running of the reins.]
furniture <03627> [thing. Heb. vessel. be unclean.]
means of riding <04817> [saddle.]
The word {merchav,} from {rachav,} to ride, here rendered by our translators saddle, and frequently chariot. Mr. Harmer thinks rather means a litter, or {coune,} of which we have already given a description in Ge 31:34.
touches <05060> [whomsoever.]
It is rather doubtful whether the words hath not rinsed his hands in water refer to him who was diseased, or to him who had his hands touched. Most understand it of the former, that if the person who had the issue rinsed his hands in water, just before he touched any one, he did not communicate any pollution; otherwise, he did. But the Syriac refers it to the person touched by him, though it seems strange that he should be cleansed by washing his hands, when perhaps some other part was touched.
vessel ............... utensil <03627> [vessel.]
broken <07665> [shall be broken.]
seven days <03117 07651> [seven days.]
wash <03526> [wash.]
one ......... other <0259> [the one.]
atonement <03722> [an atonement.]
leather <05785> [skin.]
The poorer class of Arabs of our times make use of mats in their tents; and other inhabitants of these countries, who affect ancient simplicity of manners, make use of goat-skins. Dr. R. Chandler, in his Travels in Greece, tells us, that he saw some dervishes at Athens sitting on goat-skins; and that he was afterwards conducted into a room furnished in like manner, with the same kind of carpeting, where he was treated with a pipe and coffee by the chief dervish. Those that are at all acquainted with Oriental manners, in these later times, know that their dervishes (who are a sort of Mohammedan devotees, a good deal resembling the begging friars of the church or Rome) affect great simplicity, and even sometimes austerity, in their dress and way of living. As these dervishes that Dr. Chandler visited sat on goat-skins, and used no other kind of carpet for the accommodation of those who visited them: so it should seem that the Israelites in the wilderness made use of skins for mattresses to lie upon, and consequently, we may equally suppose to sit upon in the day time, instead of a carpet.
woman <0802> [the woman.]
unclean <02930> [unclean.]
discharge <02101> [and her issue.]
menstruation <05079> [put apart. Heb. in her separation.]
Thus <05144> [Thus shall.]
die <04191> [that they.]
These laws were principally intended to impress the minds of the Israelites with reverence for the sanctuary; and, on the one hand, to shew them what need they had of circumspection, and purity of heart and life, in order to worship the holy God with acceptance; and, on the other hand, that being sinners in a world full of temptations and defilements, they would continually need forgiveness, through the great atonement typified by all the sacrifices, and the sanctification of the Spirit, showed forth by all the purifications. While they were encamped in the desert, it would not be very burdensome to bring the prescribed oblations; but after they were settled in Canaan, many of them at a great distance from the tabernacle, this would become much more difficult. We may, however, observe, continues Mr. Scott, that many of the cases stated only required such washings as might any where be performed, and that those, respecting which sacrifices were appointed, would more rarely occur. We may also suppose, that provided these were brought, when the person who had been unclean first came to the sanctuary, it would suffice: though distance or other hindrances prevented its being done immediately, at the expiration of the seven days.
sick .... menstruation <01739 05079> [of her.]
man <02100 0376> [and of him.]
