Leviticus 14:34

_WHEN YE BE COME INTO THE LAND OF CANAAN, WHICH I GIVE TO YOU FOR A POSSESSION, AND I PUT THE PLAGUE OF LEPROSY IN A HOUSE OF THE LAND OF YOUR POSSESSION;_ Leprosy in a house. This law was prospective, not being to come into operation until the settlement of the Israelites in Canaan. The words, "I put the leprosy," has led many to think that this plague was a judicial infliction from heaven for the sins of the owner; while others do not regard it in this light, it being common in Scripture to represent God as doing that which He only permits in His providence to be done. Assuming it to have been a natural disease, a new difficulty arises as to whether we are to consider that the house had become infected by the contagion of leprous occupiers; or that the leprosy was in the house itself. It is evident that the latter was the true state of the case from the furniture being removed out of...

34._When ye be come into the land. _Another sort of leprosy is here treated of, as to which we may not unreasonably rejoice that it is now unknown to us. But, as God had honored that people with extraordinary privileges, so it was consistent that their ingratitude should be punished by more severe penalties, if they defiled the gifts in which they excelled. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that punishments were inflicted upon them, which it fills us with surprise and horror to hear of. It was a sad sight to behold the leprosy invading the human body; but there was something portentous to perceive it affecting their houses also, and driving out the owners and their families; for if they wittingly and voluntarily remained there, the contagion spread to themselves and all their furniture. But, since God marked with public ignominy those whose houses were struck with leprosy, He comma...

33-53 The leprosy in a house is unaccountable to us, as well as the leprosy in a garment; but now sin, where that reigns in a house, is a plague there, as it is in a heart. Masters of families should be aware, and afraid of the first appearance of sin in their families, and put it away, whatever it is. If the leprosy is got into the house, the infected part must be taken out. If it remain in the house, the whole must be pulled down. The owner had better be without a dwelling, than live in one that was infected. The leprosy of sin ruins families and churches. Thus sin is so interwoven with the human body, that it must be taken down by death....

Verse Leviticus 14:34. _WHEN YE BE COME INTO THE LAND - AND I PUT THE PLAGUE_ _OF LEPROSY_] It was probably from this text that the leprosy has been generally considered to be a disease inflicted immediately by God himself; but it is well known that in Scripture God is frequently represented as _doing_ what, in the course of his providence, he only _permits_ or suffers to be done. It is supposed that the infection of the house, as well as of the person and the garments, proceeded from _animalcula_. Leviticus 13:47, and _"_Leviticus 13:52_"_....

This section is separated from that on leprosy in clothing Leviticus 13:47 with which it would seem to be naturally connected, and is placed last of all the laws concerning leprosy, probably on account of its being wholly prospective. While the Israelites were in the wilderness, the materials of their dwellings were of nearly the same nature as those of their clothing, and would be liable to the same sort of decay. They were therefore included under the same law. I PUT THE PLAGUE - Yahweh here speaks as the Lord of all created things, determining their decay and destruction as well as their production. Compare Isaiah 45:6; Jonah 4:7;...

EXPOSITION THE LEPROSY OF A HOUSE, AND ITS CLEANSING (Leviticus 14:33-3). The subject of leprosy in houses must be regarded from the same point of view as that of leprosy in clothes. The regulations respecting it are not sanitary laws, as Lange represents them, but rest, as Keil argues, upon an ideal or symbolical basis. The same thought is attached to all species of uncleanness. Something—it matters not what—produces a foul and repulsive appearance in the walls of a house. That is in itself sufficient to make that house unclean; for whatever is foul and repulsive is representative of moral and spiritual defilement, and therefore is itself symbolically defiling and defiled. It has been suggested that the special cause of the affection of the houses i

WHEN YE BE COME INTO THE LAND OF CANAAN,.... Which as yet they were not come to, being in the wilderness, and so the following law concerning the leprosy in houses could not yet take place, they now dwelling in tents, and not in houses: WHICH I GIVE TO YOU FOR A POSSESSION; the Lord had given it to Abraham, and his seed, long ago, to be their inheritance, and now he was about to put them into the possession of it, which they were to hold as their own under God, their sovereign Lord and King: AND I PUT THE PLAGUE OF LEPROSY IN A HOUSE OF THE LAND OF YOUR POSSESSION; by which it appears that this kind of leprosy was from the immediate hand of God, and was supernatural and miraculous, as the Jewish writers affirm f; nor is there anything in common, or at least in our parts of the world, that is answerable unto it; and from hence the same writers g conclude, that houses of Gentiles are exe...

4. THE CLEANSING OF THE LEPER CHAPTER 14 _ 1. The cleansing of the leper (Leviticus 14:1)_ 2. Leprosy in the house and its purification (Leviticus 14:33) The cleansing and restoration of the leper is full of significance, foreshadowing once more the blessed work of our Saviour. Two parts in this ceremonial are to be noticed first of all. The first thing done was to restore the leper among the people from whom he had been put away. The second part of the ceremony restored him fully to communion with God. The first part was accomplished on the first day; the second part on the eighth day. A careful distinction must be made between the healing and the cleansing. All the ceremonies could not heal the leper. Jehovah alone could heal that loathsome disease. But after the

11- 15. RITUAL CLEANLINESS AND UNCLEANLINESS. Leviticus 11, Animals; Leviticus 12, Childbirth; Leviticus 13, Skin diseases (including tainted garments); Leviticus 14:1, Purgation for skin diseases; Leviticus 14:33, Leprosy in houses, and general conclusion to the Law; Leviticus 15, Issues. Probably to most modern readers, this section is the least intelligible in the book. We must consider it (_a)_ in its ethnological and (_b)_ its specifically Hebrew aspect, (_a)_ These laws are properly taboos. The term is Polynesian, signifying what is in itself, or artificially, forbidden, either for the whole community, or else for common people, or priests, or kings (p. 629). Taboos may relate to places, or to the sexes, or to certain ages. Certain kinds of food m

WHEN YE BE COME, &C. Here we have the first of four prospective laws, having no immediate hearing. See Leviticus 19:23; Leviticus 23:10; Leviticus 25:2. Hence it is separated from the law for leprous men and garments, in the form of an appendix. PLAGUE. House leprosy is here represented as being supernatural. This was peculiar to Palestine and to houses of Israelites. The Targum of Jonathan renders this: "And if there be. man who buildeth his house with stolen goods, then. will put", &c....