Leviticus 12:1--13:59
woman <0802> [If a woman.]
days ........ days <03117> [according.]
lamb <03532> [a lamb.]
son ........... year ... lamb ........ young <01121 08141> [of the first year. Heb. a son of his year.]
atonement <03722> [make.]
clean <02891> [be cleansed.]
male <02145> [a male.]
afford ... sheep <07716 04672> [she be not able to bring a lamb. Heb. her hand find not sufficiency of a lamb.]
atonement <03722> [make an atonement.]
When burnt offerings and sin offerings were brought together, the sin offerings were first offered.
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.
Leviticus 15:1-33
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.]
Leviticus 22:4-6
descendants ........................................ emission <02233> [the seed.]
These words include the daughters as well as the sons of Aaron.
diseased <06879> [a leper.]
discharge <02100> [running issue. Heb. running of the reins.]
holy offerings <06944> [holy things.]
clean <02891> [until.]
unclean <02931> [unclean.]
descendants ........................................ emission <02233> [whose.]
man <0376> [whosoever.]
person <0120> [or a man.]
Numbers 19:11-16
touches ... corpse <04191 05060> [toucheth the dead.]
He who touched a dead beast was only unclean for one day, (Le 11:12, 27, 39;) but he who touches a dead man is unclean for seven days. This was certainly designed to show the peculiar impurity and sinfulness of man, and the hatefulness of sin, seven times worse than the vilest animal!
person <0120> [man. Heb. soul of man.]
purify ........................ purify <02398> [He shall purify.]
"Yithchatta," literally, "he shall sin himself," i.e., not add sin, but take it away, purify. So we say to fleece, and to skin, which do not signify to add a fleece, or a skin, but to take one away.
on ... third day ... on .... day .............. on ... third day ..... day <03117 07992> [third day.]
purify <02398> [purifieth.]
water <04325> [the water.]
uncleanness <02932> [his uncleanness.]
touches <05060> [toucheth.]
bone <06106> [a bone.]
grave <06913> [a grave.]
