Leviticus 14)
1: And the Lord spoke to Moses , saying, (This was delivered to Moses alone, who was to communicate these regulations to Aaron and his sons; while the rules by which the plague was to be discerned were given to both Moses and Aaron. Thus the position of Moses as the great lawgiver was upheld and secured. See 5:14)
2: "This shall be the law of the leper (provides for his cleansing) in the day (=when) of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the priest: (Cp. Matt. 8:2. Mark 1:40. Luke 5:12; 17:13. The leper could do nothing. He must be "brought". The priest to go forth to him v.3)
3: And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the spot of leprosy be healed in the leper;
4: Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed (= him that is cleansing himself) two birds (or sparrows) alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: (Hence the ancient tradition that the highest tree and the lowest herb give the leper purity, because pride was the cause of the spot, and humility is the necessary condition of its cure. These three were used also with the red heifer [Num. 19:6]. Cp. Heb. 9:19. Ps. 51:7.)
5: And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water: (Heb. living, i.e. not stagnant.)
6: As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water:
7: And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times (cp. 4:6. 2 Kings 5:10,14. #7 = spiritual perfection), and shall declare him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field. (Heb. = over the face of the field.)
8: And he that is to be cleansed shall bathe his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water, that he may be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days.
9: But it shall be on the seventh day (he was clean on the first day, now he enters into the enjoyment of it himself), that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off: and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash his flesh in water (= bathe his body. Flesh put or the body, as in Ecc. 2:3. Isa. 10:8. Ezek. 10:12. Occ 8 times in Lev. - 14:9; 15:13,16; 16:4,24,26,28; 22:6, and is rendered in 3 different ways in the A.V. But a peculiar ritual phrase should obviously be rendered by the same English phrase. This is to be distinguished from "himself" in 14:8; 15:5,6,7,8,10,11,16,18,21,22,27; 17:15), and he shall be clean.
10: And on the eighth day (now, all the offerings are introduced, but the trespass offering comes first [v.12]. The number 8 denotes resurrection, regeneration) he shall take two he lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, and three tenth deals (approx. 1½ gal.) of fine flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and one log (approx. 2/3 of a pint) of oil.
11: And the priest that makes him clean shall present the man (= cause the man to stand, all is done for the leper, he can do nothing) that is to be made clean, and those things, before the Lord, at the entrance of the tent of the assembly:
12: And the priest shall take one he lamb, and bring him near for a trespass offering (Heb. āsām. Relates to sins of omission, while chatta relates to sins of commission = sin in general; 'Asam sin in relation to Mosaic law; sins of error arising from ignorance or negligence), and the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord:
13: And he shall slay the lamb in the place where he shall kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the holy place: for as the sin offering is the priest's, so is the trespass offering: it is most holy: (See Ex. 3:5)
14: And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot:
15: And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand:
16: And the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord:
17: And of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the blood of the trespass offering:
18: And the remnant of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall pour upon the head of him that is to be cleansed (note how all the members of the body are in turn cleansed. All is forgiven. Ps. 103:3. Col. 1:14; 2:13. Eph. 1:7): and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord. (See Ex.29:33)
19: And the priest shall offer the sin offering, and make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed from his uncleanness; and afterward he shall kill the burnt offering:
20: And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meal offering upon the altar: and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean.
21: And if he be poor (The Divine consideration is again shown here. Cp. 5:7,11; 12:8), and cannot get (Heb. "his hand reach not") so much; then he shall take one lamb for a trespass offering to be waved, to make an atonement for him, and one tenth deal of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering, and a log of oil;
22: And two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to get; and the one shall be a sin offering, and the other a burnt offering.
23: And he shall bring them on the eighth day for his cleansing to the priest, to the entrance of the tent of the assembly, before the Lord.
24: And the priest shall take the lamb of the trespass offering, and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord: (The ritual as imposing for the poor as for the rich.)
25: And he shall kill the lamb of the trespass offering, and the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot:
26: And the priest shall pour of the oil into the palm of his own left hand:
27: And the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the Lord:
28: And the priest shall put of the oil that is in his hand upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the place of the blood of the trespass offering:
29: And the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put upon the head of him that is to be cleansed, to make an atonement for him before the Lord.
30: And he shall offer the one of the turtledoves, or of the young pigeons, such as he can get;
31: Even such as he is able to get, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, with the meat offering: and the priest shall make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed before the Lord.
32: This is the law of him in whom is the spot of leprosy, whose hand is not able to get that which pertains to his cleansing."
33: And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, (See 5:14. The law of cleansing persons addressed to Moses alone; that about houses, &c. addressed to Aaron as well.)
34: "When you all come into the land of Canaan (here we have the first of 4 prospective laws, having no immediate bearing. See 19:23; 23:10; 25:2. Hence it is separated from the law of leprous men and garments, in the form of an appendix), which I give to you for a possession, and I put the spot of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession; (House leprosy is here presented as being supernatural. This was peculiar to Palestine and to houses of Israelites. The Targum of Jonathan renders this, "And if there be a man who builds his house with stolen goods, then I will put", &c.)
35: And he that owns the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, 'It seems to me there is as it were a spot in the house:'
36: Then the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest go into it to see the spot (This law was not benign in its intention), 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 spot, and, behold, if the spot be in the walls of the house with sunken places, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower or deeper than the surface of the wall;
38: Then the priest shall go out of the house to the entrance of the house, and shut up the house seven days:
39: And the priest shall come again the seventh day (note the frequency of this number throughout = 7 = spiritual perfection), and shall look: and, behold, if the spot is spread in the walls of the house; (This is a bad sign in noting the presence and workings of our inward corruption)
40: Then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the spot is (Of the verbs in these three verses, note that two are in the singular, viz., v.42, "he shall take", and "he shall plaster". Hence the authorities of the second temple interpreted the plural of the owners of the "party-wall", and the singular of the owner of the affected house), and they shall cast them into an unclean place outside the city:
41: And he shall cause the house to be scraped within round about, and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off, outside the city into an unclean place:
42: And they shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones; and he shall take other mortar, and shall plaster the house.
43: And if the plague come again, and break out in the house, after that he hath taken away the stones, and after he hath scraped the house, and after it is plastered;
44: Then the priest shall come and look, and, behold, if the plague be spread in the house (the same criterion as in the case of men and garments, see v.37 and 13:6), it is a rankling leprosy in the house: it is unclean.
45: And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place.
46: Moreover he that goes into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even.
47: And he that lies in the house shall wash his clothes; and he that eats in the house shall wash his clothes.
48: And if the priest shall (actually) come in, and look upon it, and, behold, the spot has not spread in the house, after the house was plastered: then the priest shall declare the house clean, because the spot is healed.
49: And he shall take to cleanse (from sin) the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:
50: And he shall kill the one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water:
51: And he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times:
52: And he shall cleanse (from sin) the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet:
53: But he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open fields, and make an atonement for the house: and it shall be clean.
54: This is the law for all manner of spot of leprosy, and scab, (VV.54-57 are the recapitulation of the law, summing up chapters 13 & 14.)
55: And for the leprosy of a garment, and of a house,
56: And for a rising, and for a scab, and for a bright spot:
57: To teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean: this is the law of leprosy."