Leviticus 13:48

_THE GARMENT ALSO THAT THE PLAGUE OF LEPROSY IS IN, WHETHER IT BE A WOOLLEN GARMENT, OR A LINEN GARMENT;_ The garment ... that the ... leprosy is in. 'It is well known that infectious diseases-such as scarlet fever, measles, the plague-are latently imbibed and carried by the clothes. But the language of this passage clearly indicates a disease to which clothes themselves were subject, and which was followed by effects on them analogous to those which malignant leprosy produces on the human body; because similar regulations were made for the rigid inspection of suspected garments by a priest, as for the examination of a leprous person. It has long been conjectured, and recently ascertained by the use of a lens, that the leprous condition of swine is produced by myriads of minute insects engendered in their skin; and regarding all leprosy as of the same nature, it is thought that this aff...

47-59 The garment suspected to be tainted with leprosy was not to be burned immediately. If, upon search, it was found that there was a leprous spot, it must be burned, or at least that part of it. If it proved to be free, it must be washed, and then might be used. This also sets forth the great evil there is in sin. It not only defiles the sinner's conscience, but it brings a stain upon all he has and all that he does. And those who make their clothes servants to their pride and lust, may see them thereby tainted with leprosy. But the robes of righteousness never fret, nor are moth-eaten....

Rather, “And the clothing in which there is a stroke of leprosy, whether the stroke is in clothing of wool or in clothing of linen; or in yarn for warp or in yarn for woof, either for linen clothing or for woolen clothing; or in a skin of leather or in any article made of leather.”...

EXPOSITION LEPROSY IN CLOTHES (Leviticus 13:47-3). To account for the use of the name leprosy in this connection, an ingenious theory has been propounded that the same cause produced a like effect in the human frame in clothes and in houses. "There is here described a disease whose cause must have been of organic growth, capable of living in the human being and of creating there a foul and painful disease of contagious character, while it could also live and reproduce itself in garments of wool, linen, or skin; nay, more, it could attach itself to the walls of a house and there also effect its own reproduction. Animalcules, always capable of choice, would scarcely be found so transferable, and we are therefore justified in supposing that green or red fungi, so often seen in epidemic periods, were the protean disease

WHETHER [IT BE] IN THE WARP, OR WOOF, OF LINEN, OR OF WOOLLEN,.... When these are woven and mixed together, it seems difficult, if not impossible, to judge whether the plague of leprosy was in the one or in the other; one would think it should be unavoidably in both; wherefore Castalio renders the words, whether "in the outer part of it, or in the inner"; in the outside or inside, or what we call the right side or the wrong side of the cloth: but to me it seems that the warp and woof, whether of linen or woollen, are here distinguished not only from garments made of them, but from the cloth itself, of which they are made, and even to be considered before they are wrought together in the loom; and, according to the Jews, when upon the spindle m: WHETHER IN A SKIN, OR ANYTHING MADE OF SKIN; that is, whether in unwrought skin, which is not made up in anything, or in anything that is made o...

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

WARP. A. S. _wearpen,_ to cast or throw. the longitudinal lines in the loom, through which the shuttle passes. Hebrew. _shathah,_ to drink in. So called because of its _drinking in_ the thread thrown by the shuttle. WOOF. A. S. to weave in. Heb _'drab,_ to intermingle. Hence used of what is mingled or woven in by the shuttle....

_Leprosy in garments_(47 59) The nature of these spots in clothing is not clear. It is generally supposed that they are caused by mildew or moth (see Art. _Leprosy, HDB_.); another suggestion is that the clothing had been worn by a leprous person, but this is not stated in the text. The materials of the garments are either wool, linen, or skin....

WHETHER—IN THE WARP, OR WOOF— _The warp_ is that range of threads which are set or fixed lengthwise in the loom, and through which the weaver shoots the cross threads called the _woof;_ and I apprehend that the expression in the sacred writer means no more than the general texture of the linen or woollen garment, as much as to say, _whether it be in the texture of linen or of woollen:_ and so, in the 59th verse, it is used again to express its being woven. Should it however be supposed, that a real distinction between _warp_ and _woof_ is intended, there seems no impropriety in supposing, that the infection might be originally in either the thread which composed the warp, or in that which composed the woof; and from thence communicated to the whole garment. _Note;_ The leprosy of sin cleaves, in some sense, to the very garments which cover us when abused to the service of pride and lust;...