Leviticus 13:2

_WHEN A MAN SHALL HAVE IN THE SKIN OF HIS FLESH A RISING, A SCAB, OR BRIGHT SPOT, AND IT BE IN THE SKIN OF HIS FLESH LIKE THE PLAGUE OF LEPROSY; THEN HE SHALL BE BROUGHT UNTO AARON THE PRIEST, OR UNTO ONE OF HIS SONS THE PRIESTS:_ When a man shall have in the skin ... The fact of the following rules for distinguishing the plague of leprosy being incorporated with the Hebrew code of laws proves the existence of the odious disease among that people. But a short time-little more than a year, if so long a period-had elapsed since the exodus, when symptoms of leprosy seem extensively to have appeared among them; and as they could not be very liable to such a cutaneous disorder amid their active journeyings, and in the dry open air of Arabia, the seeds of the disorder must have been laid in Egypt, where it has always been endemic. There is every reason to believe that this was the case-that t...

2._When a man shall have in the skin. _Since every eruption was not the leprosy, and did not render a man unclean, when God appoints the priests to be the judges, He distinguishes by certain marks a common eruption from the leprosy; and then subjoins the difference between the various kinds of leprosy. For the disease was not always incurable; but, only when the blood was altogether corrupted, so that the skin itself had become hardened by its corrosion, or swollen by its diseased state. This, then, must be observed in the first place, that the Greek and Latin word _lepra, _and the Hebrew צרעת _tzaragmath, _extend further than to the incurable disease, which medical men call _elephantiasis _(4) both on account of the hardness of the skin, and also its mottled color; not, however, that there is an entire agreement between the thickness of the man’s skin and tha

1-17 The plague of leprosy was an uncleanness, rather than a disease. Christ is said to cleanse lepers, not to cure them. Common as the leprosy was among the Hebrews, during and after their residence in Egypt, we have no reason to believe that it was known among them before. Their distressed state and employment in that land must have rendered them liable to disease. But it was a plague often inflicted immediately by the hand of God. Miriam's leprosy, and Gehazi's, and king Uzziah's, were punishments of particular sins; no marvel there was care taken to distinguish it from a common distemper. The judgment of it was referred to the priests. And it was a figure of the moral pollutions of men's minds by sin, which is the leprosy of the soul, defiling to the conscience, and from which Christ alone can cleanse. The priest could only convict the leper, (by the law is the knowledge of sin,) bu...

Verse Leviticus 13:2. _THE PLAGUE OF LEPROSY_] This dreadful disorder has its name _leprosy_, from the Greek λεποα, from λεπις, a _scale_, because in this disease the body was often covered with _thin_ _white scales_, so as to give it the appearance of _snow_. Hence it is said of the hand of Moses, Exodus 4:6, that it was _leprous as snow_; and of Miriam, Numbers 12:10, that she became _leprous_, as white _as snow_; and of Gehazi, 2 Kings 5:27, that, being judicially struck with the disease of Naaman, _he went out_ from Elisha's _presence a leper_ as white _as snow_. See Clarke on...

THE SKIN OF HIS FLESH - An expression found nowhere but in this chapter. It probably denotes the cuticle or scarf skin, as distinguished from the curls or true skin. RISING ... SCAB ... BRIGHT SPOT - The Hebrew words are the technical names applied to the common external signs of incipient elephantiasis. LIKE THE PLAGUE OF LEPROSY - Like a stroke of leprosy....

EXPOSITION UNCLEANNESS DERIVED FROM LEPROSY OR CONTACT WITH LEPERS AND LEPROUS THINGS (Leviticus 13:1, Leviticus 14:1). A third cause of uncleanness is found in a third class of offensive or repulsive objects. There is no disease which produces so foul an appearance in the human form as leprosy. There was, therefore, no disease so suitable for creating ceremonial, because representing spiritual, uncleanness. The name leprosy has been made to cover a number of diseases similar but not identical in character. There are many spurious forms of leprosy, and many diseases akin to leprosy which do not

WHEN A MAN SHALL HAVE IN THE SKIN OF HIS FLESH,.... Rules are here given, by which a leprosy might be judged of; which, as a disease, was frequent in Egypt, where the Israelites had dwelt a long time, and from whence they were just come; and is doubtless the reason, as learned men have observed, that several Heathen writers make the cause of their expulsion from Egypt, as they choose to call it, though wrongly, their being infected with this distemper; whereas it was the reverse, not they, but the Egyptians, were incident to it z. Moreover, the leprosy here spoken of seems not to be the same with that disease, or what we now call so, though some have thought otherwise; it being rather an uncleanness than a disease, and the business of a priest, and not a physician to attend unto; and did not arise from natural causes, but was from the immediate hand of God, and was inflicted on men for t...

LEPROSY Leprosy speaks of sin as 1. in the blood; 2. becoming overt in loathsome ways; 3. incurable by human means. The anti-type as applied to the people of God is "sin," demanding self-judgment (1 Corinthians 11:31) and "sins," demanding confession and cleansing. (1 John 1:9)....

3. LEPROSY: TYPE OF INDWELLING SIN CHAPTER 13 _ 1. Leprosy in a person (Leviticus 13:1)_ 2. The infected garment. (Leviticus 13:47) 3. The cleansing of the garment (Leviticus 13:58) The entire chapter treats of leprosy. It has been argued from the side of critics that the disease described here is not the one we know as leprosy, but only a similar disease of the skin. The arguments advanced to support this objection are silenced by Matthew 8:1. The man who came to our Lord had leprosy. The Lord told him “show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testi

GENERAL PROCEDURE. Certain classes of signs arouse suspicion. The priest is to inspect. If he sees them to be distinctly leprous, the patient is to be so treated; otherwise he is to be secluded for one or two periods of seven days; if there is no further spreading, he is discharged clean. LEVITICUS 13:1. FIRST CASE. A ring or scab on the flesh. If there are white hairs more than skin-deep, the disease is present. LEVITICUS 13:9. RECOVERY OF CLEANNESS. The grounds for deciding as to whether the leprosy has run its course are as follows; if the hair is white and there is raw flesh, the patient needs no isolation for inspection purposes, the decision can be made at once; but if he is white all over, the disease is regarded as at an end; probably a case of leucoderma is in m