Leviticus 14:51

_AND IF THE PRIEST SHALL COME IN, AND LOOK UPON IT, AND, BEHOLD, THE PLAGUE HATH NOT SPREAD IN THE HOUSE, AFTER THE HOUSE WAS PLAISTERED: THEN THE PRIEST SHALL PRONOUNCE THE HOUSE CLEAN, BECAUSE THE PLAGUE IS HEALED._ The priest shall pronounce the house clean. The precautions here described show that there is great danger in warm countries from the house leprosy, which was likely to be increased by the smallness and rude architecture of the houses in the early ages of the Israelite history. Since a house could not contract any impurity in the sight of God, the 'atonement' which the priest was to make for it must either have had a reference to the sins of its occupiers, or to the ceremonial process appointed for its purification, the very same as that observed for a leprous person. This solemn declaration that it was "clean," as well as the offering made on the occasion, were admirably...

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....

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

AND HE SHALL TAKE THE CEDAR WOOD, AND THE HYSSOP, AND THE SCARLET, AND THE LIVING BIRD,.... Leviticus 14:6. AND SPRINKLE THE HOUSE SEVEN TIMES. Leviticus 14:7....

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

Note the emphasis put upon this ceremony by the Structure (an Introversion). Note also the Figure of speech. _Polysyndeton_. (App-6.) |. | 51-. Cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet, |. |-51-. And the living bird, |. | -51-. Blood of the bird and running water, |. |. 51. The house. |. | 52-. The house. |. | -52-. Blood of the bird and running water. |. | -52- And the living bird. |. | 52. Cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet....

_Leprosy in houses_(33 53) Nothing definite is known about these appearances on the walls of a house, which are here described as leprosy. It was regarded as a special visitation of God (Leviticus 14:34, -I put the plague"); the Jews believed that the plague was peculiar to Palestine and the chosen people, and was not found in the houses of foreigners. The owner of the house must say -There seemeth to me …" (Leviticus 14:35): the decision whether the house is leprous rests with the priest. The order to empty the house before the priest comes to inspect shews that there is no fear of contagion. It has been suggested that the appearances were due to damp, or decay, or the growth of some vegetable matter. The diagnosis is similar to that for leprosy in man; the remedy is to remove the stones in

THE LAWS CONCERNING THE LEPROSY OF HOUSES 14:33-57 TEXT 14:33-57 33 And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 34 When ye are 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; 35 then he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, There seemeth to me to be as it were a plague in the house. 36 And the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest goeth in to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean: and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house: 37 and he shall look on the plague; and, behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow streaks, greenish or reddish, and the appearance thereof be lower than the wall; 38 then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut u...