The Third Book of Moses, called Leviticus
Leviticus 14
Chapter XIV · Vol. I, pp. 384–387
2 The rites and sacrifices in cleansing of the leper. 33 The signs of leprosy in a house. 48 The cleansing of that house.
1 AND the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He a shall be brought unto the priest.
3 And the priest shall go forth out of the camp: and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be b healed in the leper;
4 Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed c two birds1 alive and clean, and d cedar-wood, and scarlet, and hyssop.
c ch. 1.14; 12.8. Ro. 9.5; 4.25. 1 Pe. 3.18.
1 Or, sparrows. [Literally, 'two small birds.' The name is generic, including several kinds of small birds.—P.]
5 And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an e earthen vessel over running water.
e 1 Pe. 3.18. 2 Co. 13.4; 4.7. He. 9.14.
6 As for the f living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar-wood,2 and the scarlet, and the hyssop,3 and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water:4
f Re. 1.18. 2 Co. 13.4. He. 1.3. Phi. 2.9-11.
2 It is a remarkable fact that in Egypt cedar wood was used in ancient times for purposes somewhat similar to that here described.—P.
3 Hebrew, 'scarlet cloth, and hyssop.' The former, according to Jewish tradition, was emblematic of vital energy and power. Botanists are not agreed as to the identity of the plant rendered hyssop.—P.
4 The living Christ appears in heaven for us, He. 9.24, having 'entered by his own blood into the holy place,' He. 9.12.—C.
7 And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy g seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall h let the living bird loose into the open field.5
g 2 Ki. 5.10. Ps. 51.2, 7. Ep. 5.27. Col. 2.10.
h He. 1.3; 4.14, 15; 7.25, 26; 9.24.
5 Heb. upon the face of the field.
8 And he that is to be cleansed shall i wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash 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.6
i Ex. 19.12. Nu. 8.7; 12.15. Is. 9.20. ch. 9.14; 11.25, 28, 40; 15.5-28. Re. 7.14. 1 Jn. 1.7. Col. 3.5. Ro. 8.13. Ga. 5.24. Ep. 5.25-27.
6 God does not immediately remove his regenerate people to glory, but leaves them 'in the camp' all the days of their 'appointed time,' as witnesses of his 'saving health,' and experienced physicians to them that are sick.—C.
9 But it shall be on the seventh day, 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, and he shall be clean.
10 And on the eighth day he shall take k two he-lambs without blemish, and one ewe-lamb of the first year7 without blemish, and three tenth-deals[≈ 6.6 litres · 1.5 gallons] of fine flour for a meat-offering, mingled with oil, and one log[≈ 310 ml · 0.55 pints] of oil.
k ch. 1.3; 2.1; 4.32. Nu. 15.4. Jn. 1.29; 3.34; 6.33, 35. 1 Co. 6.11.
A.M. 2514. B.C. 1490.
7 Heb. the daughter of her year.
11 And the priest that maketh him clean shall present the man that is l to be made clean, and those things, before the LORD, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation:
l Ep. 5.26, 27. 1 Jn. 3.3. Re. 1.5; 7.14.
12 And the priest shall take m one he-lamb, and offer him for a trespass-offering, and the log of oil, and wave them for a wave-offering before the LORD.
m ch. 5.6. Ex. 29.24. Is. 53.10, 11. Tit. 3.5-7.
13 And he shall slay the lamb n 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.
n ch. 1.11; 3.8; 4.4, 24; 7.1, 2, 6, 7. Ex. 29.11. Mat. 20.18; 21.38.
14 And the priest shall o 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.
o ch. 8.23, 24. Ex. 29.20. 2 Co. 7.1. 1 Pe. 1.14, 15. Is. 50.5; 52.11. Ps. 85.8; 90.17; 116.16; 119.32, 59, 60. Phi. 3.17. 1 Co. 15.58.
15 And the priest shall take some of the logp of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand:
p Jn. 3.34. Joel 2.28. Is. 44.3-5.
16 And the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkleq of the oil with his finger seven times before the LORD.8
q Lu. 2.14; 17.18. 1 Co. 10.31. 1 Pe. 4.11. Ep. 3.21.
8 The oil was consecrated or dedicated to the Lord by this act. Then it was employed for another purpose. It was put upon the ear, the thumb, and the toe of the person who had been cleansed, and for whom atonement had been made, as evidenced by the touching with blood. The touching with oil signified that as the individual by leprosy had been unclean, and separated from God's service—as he had in fact been dead in the eye of the law—so now he was sanctified again and fitted for God's service; new life was bestowed upon him.—P.
17 And of the r 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 blood9 of the trespass-offering.
r Eze. 36.27. Tit. 3.5, 6. 2 Co. 3.1, 17. Jn. 1.16, with Ex. 29.20. ch. 8.30.
9 The blood of every sacrifice represents the blood that 'cleanseth us from all sin,' 1 Jn. 1.7. The hand, the foot, the ear, touched with blood, represent the active and intellectual powers, 'crucified with Christ,' Ro. 6.6. The oil superimposed on each blood mark, covering, but not hiding it—nay causing it to shine with new brightness — represents the work of 'the Spirit in applying to us the redemption secured by Christ,' in 'taking the things of Christ and showing them to us,' Jn. 16.15, and in 'bearing witness on earth with the blood,' 1 Jn. 5.8; and, finally, in anointing our head, in token of our full restoration and advancement to all the dignity, and honour, and holy communion with Christ and his people, from which, by sin, we had been excluded, 1 Jn. 2.20, 27. Ps. 23.5.—C.
18 And the remnant of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall s pour upon the head of him that is to be cleansed; and the priest shall maket an atonement for him before the LORD.
s ch. 8.12. Ex. 29.7. Ps. 133.2. 2 Co. 1.21, 22. 1 Jn. 2.20, 27. Ep. 1.17; 3.16-19.
t Ex. 30.16. ch. 4.35. 1 Jn. 2.1, 2. Ro. 5.10, 11.
19 And the priest shall u 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.
u ch. 4. Is. 53.10. 2 Co. 5.21. 1 Jn. 2.2; 4.9, 10. Ro. 3.24, 25; 4.25; 8.3, 33, 34. 1 Pe. 1.18, 19; 2.24; 3.18.
20 And the priest shall x offer the burnt-offering and the meat-offering upon the altar: andy the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean.
x ch. 1.11. Ep. 5.2. He. 10.8, 14.
y See ver. 18; ch. 4.20, 35.
21 And if he z be poor, and cannot get1 so much; then he shall take one lamb for a trespass-offering to be waved,2 to make an atonement for him, and one tenth-deal[≈ 2.2 litres · 3.9 pints] of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat-offering, and a log of oil;
22 And two turtle-doves, 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 Anda he shall bring them on the eighth day, for his cleansing, unto the priest, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, before the LORD.
A.M. 2514. B.C. 1490.
a See from ver. 10-20.
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.
25 And he shall kill the lamb of the trespass-offering, and the priest shall b take some of the blood of the trespass-offering,3 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.
b Ex. 29.20. ch. 8.24; ver. 14, 17. Ac. 13.39. 1 Th. 5.23. Ps. 40.6. Eze. 3.17. De. 33.11. Ga. 2.14. Ec. 5.1.
3 'The blood, says Patrick, 'seems to have been a token of forgiveness, the oil, of healing.' Ps. 103.3, 'who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases.' Forgiveness is procured through the blood of Christ, but it must be applied by the Spirit of God both to pacify and purify the conscience. The one is an inseparable attendant of the other. 'Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.'—l.
26 And the priest shall pour of the oil into the palm of his own left hand.4
4 The purification of a leper was much like to the consecration of a high-priest.
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 c rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put upon the head of him that is to be cleansed, d to make an atonement for him before the LORD.
c Ex. 29.7. ch. 8.12. Is. 44.3, 4. Jn. 1.16. 1 Jn. 2.20, 27. Ep. 1.17; 3.16, 19.
30 And he shall offer the one of the turtle-doves, or of the young pigeons, such as he can get;
31 Even such as he is able to get,5 the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering, with the meat-offering: and e the priest shall make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed before the LORD.
5 This accommodation of the sacrifice to the temporal circumstances of the offerer is not a descent of the moral law to the debased desires of the sinner, but a merciful visit of the priestly physician to the habitation of spiritual disease. But, even in this accommodation the lamb, and the blood, and the oil, the meal and burnt and sin offering, cannot be dispensed with. It recognized providential differences in means and opportunities. One may have the foot freer than another to run in the service of God; another may have the hand more vigorous for labour or defence; another may have better opportunities of hearing and learning 'the things that belong to his peace,' Lu. 19.42; another may be more honoured in station and influence than another, but all must be touched with the blood and the oil; both must be 'washed, justified, and sanctified,' 1 Co. 6.11, and no matter then what the difference of the talents, each faithful (not each successful) servant shall enter into 'the joy of his Lord,' Mat. 25.27.—C.
e See ch. 4.20, 35. Mat. 3.17. Jn. 17.19, 20. Ep. 1.6. Ro. 5.8. 1 Jn. 2.1, 2. He. 9.14.
32 This is the law of him in whom is the plague of leprosy, whose f hand is not able to get that which pertaineth to his cleansing.
f ver. 21-31. Ps. 72.12-14; 136.23; 68.10. 2 Co. 8.9. 1 Co. 1.27, 28. Ja. 2.5.
33 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
34 When ye be come into the land of Canaan, which I g give to you for a possession, and I h put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession;
g Ge. 12.7; 13.15; 15.18. Nu. 21.32, 35.
h Mat. 8.9. Is. 45.5, 7, with 10.15, 26. Am. 3.6. De. 7.15.
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:
36 Then the priest shall command that they empty6 the house before the priest go into it to see the plague, that i all that is in the house be not made unclean; and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house.
A.M. 2514. B.C. 1490.
6 Or, prepare.
i 1 Co. 15.33. 1 Ti. 5.22. Ep. 5.7, 11. Re. 18.4. 2 Co. 6.14-18. 2 Th. 3.6. 14.2 Ti. 3.5.
37 And he shall look on the plague,7 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;
7 This plague represented corruptions in families, nations, and churches.
38 Then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days.
39 And the priest shall come again the seventh day, and shall look: and, behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house:
40 Then the priest shall command that they takek away the stones in which the plague is, and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city.
k 1 Co. 5.4-8, 11, 13. Tit. 3.10. Re. 2.2, 6, 14, 20, 22. Mal. 3.3. Is. 1.25, 26. The house leprosy here described has occasioned much perplexity to inquirers, and the difficulty has probably arisen from being led by the name to look upon this 'leprosy,' as well as that in clothes, as something akin to the human disease so called. Men, clothes, and stones have not the same diseases, but from some analogous circumstances, real or fanciful, the diseases of men may be, and have been, by a figure of speech, applied to diseases in other things. Indeed, to this day there are certain disorders of trees in Egypt and Palestine to which the name of leprosy is given. In Switzerland also they speak of a cancer in buildings on the same principle, and why should we not understand the leprosy in buildings of the present text as something of a similar description? If we believe that the house leprosy was anything related to the disorder of the same name in man, it is extremely difficult to account for the symptoms and mode of treatment; and we cannot do better than agree with the rabbins and some of the early Christian fathers, who believed that this leprosy was not natural, but was sent by God as an extraordinary punishment upon evil-doers, to compel them to the public acknowledgment and atonement of some understood crime whereby others had been injured.—Pict. Bible. Various attempts have been made to explain this subject from infection from man and other natural causes; but there is no intimation whatever that the house leprosy was infectious to man.—l.
41 And he shall cause the house to be scraped within round about, and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without 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, it is a fretting leprosy in the house: it is unclean.8
45 And he shall l 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 goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even.
47 And he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes; and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes.
48 And if the priest shall come in,9 and look upon it, and, behold, the plague hath not spread in the house after the house was plastered; then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed.
9 Heb. in coming in shall come in, &c.
49 And he shall take to cleanse the house m two birds, and cedar-wood, and scarlet, and hyssop.
A.M. 2514. B.C. 1490.
m ver. 4-7. 1 Pe. 3.18. 2 Co. 13.4. Ro. 4.25.
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 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.
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;
Notes
[Ver. 4. The cedar wood mentioned here, and in Nu. 19. 6, is said not to be the cedar of Lebanon, so distinguished in Scripture for the uses of architecture, but the fragrant wood of the Juniperus Oxycedrus, which grows abundantly in Syria and Palestine. We are led, however, to believe it to be the cedar of Lebanon, and that it is used with the hyssop; (1) as representing the two scriptural limits of vegetation. Thus it is written, 1 Ki. 4. 30-33, 'And Solomon's wisdom excelled all the wisdom of the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt, and he spake of trees, from the cedar of Lebanon even to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall.' Now, as under the blessing of Heaven a wholesome vegetable diet is one of the chief remedies in cutaneous diseases, these two extremes might well represent the whole vegetable family. (2) The cedar, as an uncorruptible wood, might naturally represent the constitution restored from corruption, and spiritually that better and incorruptible life of which bodily health is the best similitude, 1 Pe. 1. 23; while the hyssop might naturally set forth gratitude for those sanative qualities which God has so largely infused into the vegetable tribes, and spiritually those 'leaves for the healing of the nations,' Re. 22. 2, which flourish unfading on the tree of eternal life. By comparing He. 9. 19 with Is. 1. 18 we discover that the scarlet represents here the deep dye of sin, which, dipped in the living waters of mercy, become as wool and as snow. C.]
Ver. 5. [The earthen vessel represents the humiliated body in which Christ died; the running water is the emblem of that ever-enduring, that eternal life, the current of which is never exhausted, which our Lord possessed in himself, and which he freely bestows on all who hear him, Jn. 10. 28. C.]
Ver. 35. [Would we judge aright of these ancient laws delivered to Moses, we must examine them in their bearing upon modern circumstances. Now, viewed in this light, there are few things in modern times more requiring legislative interference and remedy than the houses ordinarily provided for the poor. Damp and ill-ventilated in one apartment, or admitting every blast in another, producing in proportion to their cost a larger return to the owner than the splendid dwellings of the rich—they furnish the perennial seeds of disease, waste and destroy their numerous and miserable inmates, become in the result an intolerable tax upon the community, who totally overlook the public nuisance concealed under the mask of private property. Now under these circumstances modern European jurisprudence offers to the miserable inhabitant of the unhealthy hovel no redress, beyond removal—a removal to as bad if not to worse; with still no remedy, but the reiterated renewal of the still hopeless experiment. Upon this scene of darkness let us pour the light of God's law by Moses. The owner, the occupying tenant, ver. 35, states to the priest his suspicion that the house is infected. It must be no bare attempt at annoyance to his superior, for all the furniture of the occupant must be removed, and he must seek another residence while due examination is made. Should the examination lead to suspicions, cleansing and due repairs are employed, and should these suspicions be confirmed, the wretched dwelling is razed to the very foundation, and its very dust is carried forth out of the city lest its floating particles should endanger the public health! Were a commission of learned, philanthropic, and godly physicians, carrying this law in their hands, to pass through the narrow and miserable lanes of our towns and cities, and visit the unhappy refuges of our condensed and diseased pauperism, what an architectural revolution would be produced! and how deeply would public health and private comfort be bound to offer the sacrifice of thankfulness to God! But while the fact of house contagion cannot be doubted, its causes are so obscure that little is yet accurately known. Decaying materials, confined air, microscopic animalculæ and plants; various miasmata, and animal exudation may all, with other causes, be the instruments of the judgments of God. But the cause of heart contagion the word of God has clearly developed, and we know that because of sin 'the earthly house of this tabernacle' has been condemned by the priest that examined it, and must be 'dissolved,' and that believers change their unhealthy residence for a 'building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,' 2 Co. 5. 1. C.]
Reflections.—No human endeavours, but God alone, can cure my spiritual plagues. By his grace, through the application of the blood and Spirit of Jesus, the God-man—of Jesus, the once slain, but now living and ascended Saviour—I must be cleansed from my reigning corruptions. Thus shall I have access into God's camp, his church below, and as a bird escaped, fly away towards heaven, rejoicing in my deliverance. But not till, through the Spirit, I repeatedly wash myself and my performances in the fountain of his blood, till I search out and mortify my corruptions, the deeds of my body, and receive the full efficacy of Jesus' righteousness, and the influences of his blessed Spirit, for the sanctification of my whole powers and members, shall I be admitted to my real habitation, or enter into unreserved and immediate fellowship with divine persons, holy angels, and glorified saints. But blessed be the Lord that my all-comprehending offering, Christ Jesus, suits me, whether I be poor or rich, and renders my person, and all my services, constantly acceptable before God.—In this plague of the house, let me observe how sin worketh the dissolution not only of human bodies, but of families, nations, and churches, and that no human projects, but Jesus and his Spirit preached and applied, can prevent their destruction, and that where there is a continued obstinacy in sinning, notwithstanding mercies and judgments, inevitable ruin must necessarily ensue.
Measures in square brackets are modern equivalents added for this edition. They are not in the King James text or in Brown’s notes. They use common scholarly estimates: a cubit is about 45.7 cm (18 in), a shekel about 11.4 g (0.4 oz), an ephah about 22 litres. Money values give the worth of the silver or gold at spot prices on 28 October 2026, not what the sum would buy in the ancient world.