Leviticus 13:13 Kommentaari

The next ceremonial uncleanness is that of the leprosy, concerning which the law was very large and particular; we have the discovery of it in this chapter, and the cleansing of the leper in the next. Scarcely any one thing in all the levitical law takes up so much room as this. I. Rules are here given by which the priest must judge whether the man had the leprosy or no, according as the symptom was that appeared. 1. If it was a swelling, a scab, or a bright spot (v. 1-17). 2. If it was a bile (Lev 13:18-23). 3. If it was in inflammation (Lev 13:24-28). 4. If it was in the head or beard (Lev 13:29-37). 5. If it was a bright spot (Lev 13:38, Lev 13:39). 6. If it was in a bald head (Lev 13:40-44). II. Direction is given how the leper must be disposed of (Lev 13:45, Lev 13:46). III. Concerning the leprosy in garments (Lev 13:47, etc.).

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 13 In this chapter an account is given of the various sorts of leprosy, and the rules by which they were to be judged of, Lev 13:1 of the bright spot and scab, Lev 13:4 of the rising or swelling, Lev 13:9 of the bile or hot ulcer, Lev 13:18 of the hot burning or inflammation, Lev 13:24 of the plague of the scall, Lev 13:29 of bright spots or blisters, Lev 13:38 and of shedding the hair, and baldness, Lev 13:40 of what the leper was to do, and to be done unto, Lev 13:45 of the leprosy in garments made of linen, woollen, or of skin, Lev 13:47.

Then the priest shall consider,.... Look wistly upon it, and well weigh the matter in his own mind, that he may make a true judgment and pronounce a right sentence: and, behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh; from head to foot, so that no quick, raw, or sound flesh appear in him: he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague; not clean from a leprosy he is covered with; but that he is free from pollution by it, and under no obligation to bring his offering, or to perform, or have performed on him any of the rites and ceremonies used in cleansing of the leper: it is all turned white; his skin and flesh with white bright spots, scabs and swellings, and no raw and red flesh appears: he is clean; in a ceremonial sense: this may seem strange, that one that had a bright spot, or a white swelling, or a scab that spreads, a single one of these, or here and there one, should be unclean, and yet, if covered over with them, should be clean; the reason in nature is, because this shows a good healthful inward constitution, which throws out all its ill humours externally, whereby health is preserved; as we see in persons that have the measles or smallpox, or such like distempers, if they stick in the skin, and only here and there one rises up in a tumour, and to an head, it is a bad sign; but if they come out kindly and well, though they cover the whole body, things are very promising: the mystical or spiritual meaning of this is, that when a man sees himself to be a sinful creature, all over covered with sin, and no part free, and disclaims all righteousness of his own to justify him before God, but wholly trusts to, and depends upon the grace of God for salvation, and the righteousness of Christ for his acceptance with God; he becomes clean through the grace of God and the blood and righteousness of Christ.

Thus he wished us to understand that the man who is changed from his former carnal state to the whiteness of faith (which the world considers a blemish and a stain) and who is completely renewed is clean. He is no longer spotted, no longer mottled with both the old and the new.

Laws relative to the leprosy. It is to be known by a rising in the flesh, a scab, or a bright spot, Lev 13:1, Lev 13:2. When the priest sees these signs he shall pronounce the man unclean, infected with the leprosy, and unfit for society, Lev 13:3. Dubious or equivocal signs of this disorder, and how the person is to be treated in whom they appear, Lev 13:4-8. In what state of this disorder the priest may pronounce a man clean or unclean, Lev 13:9-13. Of the raw flesh, the sign of the unclean leprosy, Lev 13:14, Lev 13:15. Of the white flesh, the sign of the leprosy called clean, Lev 13:16, Lev 13:17. Of the leprosy which succeeds a boil, Lev 13:18-20. Equivocal marks relative to this kind of leprosy, Lev 13:21, Lev 13:22. Of the burning boil, Lev 13:23. Of the leprosy arising out of the burning boil, Lev 13:24, Lev 13:25. Equivocal marks relative to this kind of leprosy, Lev 13:26-28. Of the plague on the head or in the beard, Lev 13:29. Of the scall, and how it is to be treated, Lev 13:30-37. Of the plague of the bright white spots, Lev 13:38, Lev 13:39. Of the bald head, Lev 13:40, Lev 13:41. Of the white reddish sore in the bald head, Lev 13:42-44. The leper shall rend his clothes, put a patch on his upper lip, and cry unclean, Lev 13:45. He shall be obliged to avoid society, and live by himself without the camp, Lev 13:46. Of the garments infected by the leprosy, and the signs of this infection, Lev 13:47-52. Equivocal marks relative to this infection, and how the garment is to be treated, by washing or by burning, Lev 13:53-58. Conclusion relative to the foregoing particulars, Lev 13:59.

If the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean - Why is it that the partial leper was pronounced unclean, and the person totally covered with the disease clean? This was probably owing to a different species or stage of the disease; the partial disease was contagious, the total not contagious. That there are two different species or degrees of the same disease described here, is sufficiently evident. In one, the body was all covered with a white enamelled scurf; in the other, there was a quick raw flesh in the risings. On this account the one might be deemed unclean, i. e., contagious, the other not; for contact with the quick raw flesh would be more likely to communicate the disease than the touch of the hard dry scurf. The ichor proceeding from the former, when brought into contact with the flesh of another, would soon be taken into the constitution by means of the absorbent vessels; but where the whole surface was perfectly dry, the absorbent vessels of another person coming in contact with the diseased man could imbibe nothing, and therefore there was comparatively no danger of infection. Hence that species or stage of the disease that exhibited the quick raw rising was capable of conveying the infection for the reasons already assigned, when the other was not. Dr. Mead thus accounts for the circumstance mentioned in the text. See on Lev 13:18 (note). As the leprosy infected bodies, clothes, and even the walls of houses, is it not rational to suppose that it was occasioned by a species of animalcula or vermin burrowing under the skin? Of this opinion there are some learned supporters.

THE LAWS AND TOKENS IN DISCERNING LEPROSY. (Lev. 13:1-59) When a man shall have in the skin, &c.--The fact of the following rules for distinguishing the plague of leprosy being incorporated with the Hebrew code of laws, proves the existence of the odious disease among that people. But a short time, little more than a year (if so long a period had elapsed since the exodus) when symptoms of leprosy seem extensively to have appeared among them; and as they could not be very liable to such a cutaneous disorder amid their active journeyings and in the dry open air of Arabia, the seeds of the disorder must have been laid in Egypt, where it has always been endemic. There is every reason to believe that this was the case: that the leprosy was not a family complaint, hereditary among the Hebrews, but that they got it from intercourse with the Egyptians and from the unfavorable circumstances of their condition in the house of bondage. The great excitement and irritability of the skin in the hot and sandy regions of the East produce a far greater predisposition to leprosy of all kinds than in cooler temperatures; and cracks or blotches, inflammations or even contusions of the skin, very often lead to these in Arabia and Palestine, to some extent, but particularly in Egypt. Besides, the subjugated and distressed state of the Hebrews in the latter country, and the nature of their employment, must have rendered them very liable to this as well as to various other blemishes and misaffections of the skin; in the production of which there are no causes more active or powerful than a depressed state of body and mind, hard labor under a burning sun, the body constantly covered with the excoriating dust of brick fields, and an impoverished diet--to all of which the Israelites were exposed while under the Egyptian bondage. It appears that, in consequence of these hardships, there was, even after they had left Egypt, a general predisposition among the Hebrews to the contagious forms of leprosy--so that it often occurred as a consequence of various other affections of the skin. And hence all cutaneous blemishes or blains--especially such as had a tendency to terminate in leprosy--were watched with a jealous eye from the first [GOOD, Study of Medicine]. A swelling, a pimple, or bright spot on the skin, created a strong ground of suspicion of a man's being attacked by the dreaded disease. then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, &c.--Like the Egyptian priests, the Levites united the character of physician with that of the sacred office; and on the appearance of any suspicious eruptions on the skin, the person having these was brought before the priest--not, however, to receive medical treatment, though it is not improbable that some purifying remedies might be prescribed, but to be examined with a view to those sanitary precautions which it belonged to legislation to adopt.

Leprosy. - The law for leprosy, the observance of which is urged upon the people again in Deu 24:8-9, treats, in the first place, of leprosy in men: (a) in its dangerous forms when appearing either on the skin (vv. 2-28), or on the head and beard (Lev 13:29-37); (b) in harmless forms (Lev 13:38 and Lev 13:39); and (c) when appearing on a bald head (Lev 13:40-44). To this there are added instructions for the removal of the leper from the society of other men (Lev 13:45 and Lev 13:46). It treats, secondly, of leprosy in linen, woollen, and leather articles, and the way to treat them (Lev 13:47-59); thirdly, of the purification of persons recovered from leprosy (Lev 14:1-32); and fourthly, of leprosy in houses and the way to remove it (vv. 33-53). - The laws for leprosy in man relate exclusively to the so-called white leprosy, λεύκη λέπρα, lepra, which probably existed at that time in hither Asia alone, not only among the Israelites and Jews (Num 12:10.; Sa2 3:29; Kg2 5:27; Kg2 7:3; Kg2 15:5; Mat 8:2-3; Mat 10:8; Mat 11:5; Mat 26:6, etc.), but also among the Syrians (Kg2 5:1.), and which is still found in that part of the world, most frequently in the countries of the Lebanon and Jordan and in the neighbourhood of Damascus, in which city there are three hospitals for lepers (Seetzen, pp. 277, 278), and occasionally in Arabia (Niebuhr, Arab. pp. 135ff.) and Egypt; though at the present time the pimply leprosy, lepra tuberosa s. articulorum (the leprosy of the joints), is more prevalent in the East, and frequently occurs in Egypt in the lower extremities in the form of elephantiasis. Of the white leprosy (called Lepra Mosaica), which is still met with in Arabia sometimes, where it is called Baras, Trusen gives the following description: "Very frequently, even for years before the actual outbreak of the disease itself, white, yellowish spots are seen lying deep in the skin, particularly on the genitals, in the face, on the forehead, or in the joints. They are without feeling, and sometimes cause the hair to assume the same colour as the spots. These spots afterwards pierce through the cellular tissue, and reach the muscles and bones. The hair becomes white and woolly, and at length falls off; hard gelatinous swellings are formed in the cellular tissue; the skin gets hard, rough, and seamy, lymph exudes from it, and forms large scabs, which fall off from time to time, and under these there are often offensive running sores. The nails then swell, curl up, and fall off; entropium is formed, with bleeding gums, the nose stopped up, and a considerable flow of saliva... The senses become dull, the patient gets thin and weak, colliquative diarrhea sets in, and incessant thirst and burning fever terminate his sufferings" (Krankheiten d. alten Hebr. p. 165).