_A.M. 2514. B.C. 1490._ The manner of cleansing a leper, Leviticus 14:1. The sacrifices to be offered for him, Leviticus 14:10. The management of a house suspected of leprosy, Leviticus 14:33. The summary of the whole, Leviticus 14:54.... [ Continue Reading ]
The priests having been instructed in the foregoing chapter how to judge of the leprosy, are here directed concerning the kinds and manner of those sacrifices and ceremonies which were requisite for the legal purification of the leper, after the priest judged him to be healed, in order that he might... [ Continue Reading ]
_He shall be brought to the priest_ Not to the priest's tent or house, but to some place without the camp, or city, where the priest should appoint to meet him.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Healed_ By God, for God alone did heal or cleanse him really, the priest only declaratively.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Two birds_ The one to represent Christ as dying for his sins, the other to represent him as rising again for his purification or justification. _Alive and clean_ Allowed for food and for sacrifice. _Cedar-wood_ A stick of cedar, to which the hyssop and one of the birds were tied by the scarlet thre... [ Continue Reading ]
_That one of the birds be killed_ By some other man. The priest did not kill it himself, because it was not properly a sacrifice, as being killed without the camp, and not in that place to which all sacrifices were confined. _In an earthen vessel_ That is, _over running water_ put _in an earthen ves... [ Continue Reading ]
_Into the open field_ The place of its former abode, signifying the taking off that restraint which was laid upon the leper, and that he was restored to free conversation with his neighbours.... [ Continue Reading ]
_All his hair_ Partly to discover his perfect soundness, partly to preserve him from a relapse through any relics of it which might remain in his hair or in his clothes. _Out of his tent_ Out of his former habitation, in some separate place, lest some of his leprosy, yet lurking in him, should break... [ Continue Reading ]
_He shall shave all his hair_ Which began to grow again, and now, for more caution, is again shaved off. _He shall be clean_ Legally declared so to be, so as to be readmitted both to his family and the public worship.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Two he-lambs, and one ewe-lamb_ For three kinds of sacrifice, namely, a trespass-offering, a sin-offering, and a burnt-offering. _Flour for a meal-offering_ For to each of these sacrifices there was a meal or bread- offering appropriated, consisting of a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour. _Mingl... [ Continue Reading ]
_Maketh him clean_ The healing is ascribed to God, (Leviticus 14:13,) but the ceremonial cleansing was an act of the priest, using the rites which God had prescribed.... [ Continue Reading ]
_A trespass-offering_ This being the first time of the leper's appearing in the assembly for God's worship after his recovery, it was proper he should pay this public testimony of homage and gratitude to his deliverer, beginning with an act of humiliation for sin, which is the source of all those pa... [ Continue Reading ]
_The priest shall put it_ To signify that he was now free to hear God's word in the appointed places, and to touch any person or thing without defiling it, and to go whither he pleased.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The oil_ As the _blood_ signified Christ's blood, by which men obtain remission of sins, so the oil denoted the graces of the Spirit, by which they are renewed. _Before the Lord_ Before the second veil which covered the holy of holies. _Upon the blood_ Upon the place where that blood was put.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The priest shall put the blood_ Upon the extremities of the body, to include the whole. And some of the oil was afterward put in the same places upon the blood. That blood seems to have been a token of forgiveness, the oil of healing; for God first _forgiveth our iniquities_, and then _healeth our... [ Continue Reading ]
_I put the plague of leprosy in a house_ Now they were in the wilderness, dwelt in tents, and had no houses; and therefore this law is made only as an appendix to the former laws concerning the leprosy, because it related not to their present state, but to their future settlement in Canaan. The lepr... [ Continue Reading ]
_That all be not made unclean_ It is observable here, that neither the people nor the household stuff were polluted till the leprosy was discovered and declared by the priest, to show what great difference God makes between sins of ignorance, and sins against knowledge.... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the walls of the house_ This, it seems, was an extraordinary judgment of God peculiar to this people, either as a punishment of their sins, which were much more aggravated and inexcusable than the sins of other nations; or as a special help to repentance, which God afforded them above other peop... [ Continue Reading ]
_That they may take away the stones_ Some have thought the leprosy in the house was typical of the idolatry which did strangely cleave to the Jewish Church, and though some of the reforming kings took away the infected stones, yet still it broke out again, till, by the captivity in Babylon, God took... [ Continue Reading ]
To _teach when it is unclean and when it is clean_ To direct the priest when to pronounce a person or house clean or unclean. Upon the whole, we may see in these laws the religious care we ought to take of ourselves to keep our minds from the dominion of all sinful affections and dispositions, which... [ Continue Reading ]