Luke 5:12

Healing a Leper

5:12 While ¹  Jesus ²  was in one of the towns, ³  a man came ⁴  to him who was covered with ⁵  leprosy. ⁶  When ⁷  he saw Jesus, he bowed down with his face to the ground ⁸  and begged him, ⁹  “Lord, if ¹⁰  you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Luke 18:13

18:13 The tax collector, however, stood ¹¹  far off and would not even look up ¹²  to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful ¹³  to me, sinner that I am!’ ¹⁴ 

Leviticus 13:45-46

The Life of the Person with Skin Disease

13:45 “As for the diseased person who has the infection, ¹⁵  his clothes must be torn, the hair of his head must be unbound, he must cover his mustache, ¹⁶  and he must call out ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ 13:46 The whole time he has the infection ¹⁷  he will be continually unclean. He must live in isolation, and his place of residence must be outside the camp.

Numbers 5:2-3

5:2 “Command the Israelites to expel ¹⁸  from the camp every leper, ¹⁹  everyone who has a discharge, ²⁰  and whoever becomes defiled by a corpse. ²¹  5:3 You must expel both men and women; you must put them outside the camp, so that ²²  they will not defile their camps, among which I live.”

Numbers 12:14

12:14 The Lord said to Moses, “If her father had only spit ²³  in her face, would she not have been disgraced for seven days? Shut her out from the camp seven days, and afterward she can be brought back in again.”

Numbers 12:2

12:2 They ²⁴  said, “Has the Lord only ²⁵  spoken through Moses? Has he not also spoken through us?” ²⁶  And the Lord heard it. ²⁷ 

Numbers 5:27

5:27 When he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, the water that brings a curse will enter her to produce bitterness – her abdomen will swell, her thigh will fall away, and the woman will become a curse among her people.

Numbers 7:3

7:3 They brought ²⁸  their offering before the Lord, six covered carts ²⁹  and twelve oxen – one cart for every two of the leaders, and an ox for each one; and they presented them in front of the tabernacle.

Numbers 7:2

7:2 Then the leaders of Israel, the heads of their clans, ³⁰  made an offering. They were the leaders of the tribes; they were the ones who had been supervising ³¹  the numbering.

Numbers 26:20-21

26:20 And the Judahites by their families were: from Shelah, the family of the Shelahites; from Perez, the family of the Perezites; and from Zerah, the family of the Zerahites. 26:21 And the Perezites were: from Hezron, the family of the Hezronites; from Hamul, ³²  the family of the Hamulites.

[5:12]  ¹ tn Grk “And it happened that while.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[5:12]  ² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:12]  ³ tn Or “cities.”

[5:12]  ⁴ tn Grk “towns, behold, a man covered with leprosy.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou, “behold”) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[5:12]  ⁵ tn Grk “full of leprosy” (an idiom for a severe condition).

[5:12]  ⁶ sn The ancient term for leprosy covers a wider array of conditions than what is called leprosy today. A leper was totally ostracized from society until he was declared cured (Lev 13:45-46).

[5:12]  ⁷ tn Grk “And seeing.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, δέ (de) has not been translated here. The participle ἰδών (idwn) has been taken temporally.

[5:12]  ⁸ tn Grk “he fell on his face”; an idiom for bowing down with one’s face to the ground.

[5:12]  ⁹ tn Grk “and begged him, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[5:12]  ¹⁰ tn This is a third class condition. The report portrays the leper making no presumptions about whether Jesus will heal him or not.

[18:13]  ¹¹ tn Grk “standing”; the Greek participle has been translated as a finite verb.

[18:13]  ¹² tn Grk “even lift up his eyes” (an idiom).

[18:13]  ¹³ tn The prayer is a humble call for forgiveness. The term for mercy (ἱλάσκομαι, Jilaskomai) is associated with the concept of a request for atonement (BDAG 473-74 s.v. 1; Ps 51:1, 3; 25:11; 34:6, 18).

[18:13]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “the sinner.” The tax collector views himself not just as any sinner but as the worst of all sinners. See ExSyn 222-23.

[13:45]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “And the diseased one who in him is the infection.”

[13:45]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and his head shall be unbound, and he shall cover on [his] mustache.” Tearing one’s clothing, allowing the hair to hang loose rather than bound up in a turban, and covering the mustache on the upper lip are all ways of expressing shame, grief, or distress (cf., e.g., Lev 10:6 and Micah 3:7).

[13:46]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “All the days which the infection is in him.”

[5:2]  ¹⁸ tn The construction uses the Piel imperative followed by this Piel imperfect/jussive form; it is here subordinated to the preceding volitive, providing the content of the command. The verb שָׁלַח (shalakh) in this verbal stem is a strong word, meaning “expel, put out, send away, or release” (as in “let my people go”).

[5:2]  ¹⁹ sn The word צָרוּעַ (tsarua’), although translated “leper,” does not primarily refer to leprosy proper (i.e., Hansen’s disease). The RSV and the NASB continued the KJV tradition of using “leper” and “leprosy.” More recent studies have concluded that the Hebrew word is a generic term covering all infectious skin diseases (including leprosy when that actually showed up). True leprosy was known and feared certainly by the time of Amos (ca. 760 b.c.). There is evidence that the disease was known in Egypt by 1500 b.c. So this term would include that disease in all probability. But in view of the diagnosis and healing described in Leviticus 13 and 14, the term must be broader. The whole basis for the laws of separation may be found in the book of Leviticus. The holiness of the Lord who dwelt among his people meant that a high standard was imposed on them for their living arrangements as well as access to the sanctuary. Anything that was corrupted, diseased, dying, or contaminated was simply not compatible with the holiness of God and was therefore excluded. This is not to say that it was treated as sin, or the afflicted as sinners. It simply was revealing – and safeguarding – the holiness of the Lord. It thus provided a revelation for all time that in the world to come nothing unclean will enter into the heavenly sanctuary. As the Apostle Paul says, we will all be changed from this corruptible body into one that is incorruptible (1 Cor 15:53). So while the laws of purity and holiness were practical for the immediate audience, they have far-reaching implications for theology. The purity regulations have been done away with in Christ – the problem is dealt with differently in the new covenant. There is no earthly temple, and so the separation laws are not in force. Wisdom would instruct someone with an infectious disease to isolate, however. But just because the procedure is fulfilled in Christ does not mean that believers today are fit for glory just as they are. On the contrary, they must be changed before going into his presence. In like manner the sacrifices have been done away in Christ – not what they covered. Sin is still sin, even though it is dealt with differently on this side of the cross. But the ritual and the regulations of the old covenant at Sinai have been fulfilled in Christ.

[5:2]  ²⁰ sn The rules of discharge (Lev 12 and 15) include everything from menstruation to chronic diseases (see G. Wyper, ISBE 1:947, as well as R. K. Harrison, Leviticus (TOTC), 158-66, and G. J. Wenham, Leviticus (NICOT), 217-25.

[5:2]  ²¹ tn The word is נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh), which usually simply means “[whole] life,” i.e., the soul in the body, the person. But here it must mean the corpse, the dead person, since that is what will defile (although it was also possible to become unclean by touching certain diseased people, such as a leper).

[5:3]  ²² tn The imperfect tense functions here as a final imperfect, expressing the purpose of putting such folks outside the camp. The two preceding imperfects (repeated for emphasis) are taken here as instruction or legislation.

[12:14]  ²³ tn The form is intensified by the infinitive absolute, but here the infinitive strengthens not simply the verbal idea but the conditional cause construction as well.

[12:2]  ²⁴ tn Now the text changes to use a plural form of the verb. The indication is that Miriam criticized the marriage, and then the two of them raised questions about his sole leadership of the nation.

[12:2]  ²⁵ tn The use of both רַק and אַךְ (raq and ’akh) underscore the point that the issue is Moses’ uniqueness.

[12:2]  ²⁶ tn There is irony in the construction in the text. The expression “speak through us” also uses דִּבֵּר + בְּ(dibber + bÿ). They ask if God has not also spoken through them, after they have spoken against Moses. Shortly God will speak against them – their words are prophetic, but not as they imagined.

[12:2]  ²⁷ sn The statement is striking. Obviously the Lord knows all things. But the statement of the obvious here is meant to indicate that the Lord was about to do something about this.

[7:3]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and they brought.”

[7:3]  ²⁹ sn For a discussion and drawings, see W. S. McCullough, IDB 1:540. But see also D. J. Wiseman, IBD 1:254.

[7:2]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the house of their fathers.”

[7:2]  ³¹ tn The form is the Qal active participle from the verb “to stand” (עָמַד, ’amad). The form describes these leaders as “the ones standing over [the ones numbered].” The expression, along with the clear indication of the first census in chapter 1, shows that this was a supervisory capacity.

[26:21]  ³² tc Smr and the Greek version have “Hamuel.”