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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Leviticus 14:33 - 14:57
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Leprosy in a House
v. 33. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
v. 34. When ye be come in to the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, which is here definitely foreseen, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession, if it should be found that the Lord had afflicted a house in this way, as a reminder of the fact that not only their bodies, but also their places of habitation should be considered consecrated to the Lord,
v. 35. and he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house,
v. 36. then the priest shall command that they empty the house, clear the house by moving all the furniture and utensils out, before the priest go in to it to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean, for all the furniture mould be looked upon as unclean if it were still in the house when the sentence of condemnation would be passed upon the structure. And afterward the priest shall go in to see the house;
v. 37. and he shall look on the plague, on the spot or area which seems to be infected, and behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall, the reference undoubtedly being to fungous growths which partake of the nature of diseases, are often poisonous, and eat into the stones,
v. 38. then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house and shut up the house seven days.
v. 39. And the priest shall come again the seventh day, according to the division of time usually observed in ceremonies of this kind, and shall look; and, behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house,
v. 40. then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is, which were affected by the fungous disease, and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city.
v. 41. And he shall cause the house to be scraped within round about, to remove all the loose and soft particles of lime or sand from the stones; and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without the city into an unclean place;
v. 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.
v. 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, the infection thus being not merely on the surface, but indicating a deep-seated trouble,
v. 44. then the priest shall come and look, and, behold, if the plague be spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house, an infection which eats away the substance of the stones; it is unclean.
v. 45. And he shall break down the house, that is, the priest shall cause this to be done, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house, all the building materials used in its construction; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place.
v. 46. Moreover, he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even.
v. 47. And he that lieth in the house, reclining there for the purpose of eating or sleeping, shall wash his clothes; and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes, not so much on account of the danger of infection as to prevent the contraction of symbolical uncleanness.
v. 48. 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 plastered, after the removal of the infected stones, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed.
v. 49. And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar-wood, and scarlet, and hyssop;
v. 50. and he shall kill the one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water;
v. 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, the blood being mixed with the water in the earthen vessel, and sprinkle the house seven times.
v. 52. And he shall cleanse 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;
v. 53. but he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open fields, and make an atonement for the house, as a structure infected with the uncleanness of sin, as it appeared in the fungous growth on the walls; and it shall be clean. The rite thus was exactly the same as that used for the leper without the camp, vv. 4-7, and the house was restored from its taint to its proper relations and purposes.
v. 54. This is the law for all manner of plague of leprosy, and scall, scab or scurf,
v. 55. and for the leprosy of a garment, and of a house,
v. 56. and for a rising, and for a scab, and for a bright spot,
v. 57. to teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean; this is the law of leprosy, as it is contained in these two Chapters.