Bible Commentaries

Leviticus 14:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Ver. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses.] And to Aaron also, though not here mentioned, as he is, Leviticus 14:33.

Leviticus 14:2 This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest:

Ver. 2. He shall be brought unto the priest.] To teach us to go to Jesus Christ the High Priest of our profession, who healeth all our diseases. [Psalms 103:3] He cured the leprosy, to others altogether incurable, by a touch of his hand only. [Mark 1:41] Yea, "he sent his word and healed them," [Psalms 107:20] and so he doth the souls of sinners that come unto him.

Leviticus 14:3 And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, [if] the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper;

Ver. 3. If the plague of leprosy be healed.] As it was in Simon the leper that entertained Christ. Jealousy, frenzy, and heresy are counted incurable diseases: not so leprosy; though the most carried it to their death, as Gehazi, Azariah, &c.

Leviticus 14:4 Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive [and] clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:

Ver. 4. Command to take.] That the leper might show his thankfulness to Jehovah his physician, as he is called. [Exodus 15:26] See Matthew 8:4. Men pray and pay physicians of their bodies, who yet do but officiose occidere many times. And shall God have nothing? Must he ask as once, Where are the other nine? Shall we not turn again with Naaman now cleansed, and offer our service, renounce our idols, dedicate all we are and have to the God of Israel?

Two birds.] Or sparrows, whereof two were sold for a farthing: to show how lightly set by Christ is in the world, whose blood nevertheless is more worth than a thousand worlds.

Leviticus 14:5 And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water:

Ver. 5. Over running water.] Heb., Living water. Life consists in motion, in action: hence waters that spring and run, are, for their continual motion, called living waters. O Lord, saith Hezekiah, "By these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit." [Isaiah 38:16]

Leviticus 14:6 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:

Ver. 6. That was killed over the running water.] Pointing at Christ, who "came not by water only, but by water and blood." [1 John 5:6] {See Trapp on "1 John 5:6"} {See Trapp on "1 Corinthians 6:11"}

Leviticus 14:7 And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.

Ver. 7. And he shall sprinkle.] This led them to that blood of sprinkling, [Hebrews 12:23-24] applied unto them by that hyssop branch of faith, whereby the heart is purified.

And shall let the living bird loose.] This figured, say some, that neither Christ’s deity without the shedding of his blood, nor Christ’s blood, but for the quickening life of the Godhead personally dwelling in him, could have been available for the purging of sin. Both which himself declareth. [John 6:53; John 6:63] And hither belongeth 2 Corinthians 5:19, Acts 20:28. Moreover it figured, that Christ by his death conquered him that had the power of death, [Hebrews 2:15] whilst he fled as a bird to the everlasting mountains, from the jaws of death to the joys of heaven. [Hebrews 7:26]

Leviticus 14:8 And he that is to be cleansed shall 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.

Ver. 8. Shall wash his clothes, and shave.] This the leper was to do the first day of his cleansing; to teach men to be thorough in the practice of mortification, at the first conversion: "laying a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." [1 Timothy 6:19]

And shall tarry abroad.] Men must not be too hasty at first to catch at comfort; but let humiliation have her perfect work, and our sorrows be suitable to our sins.

Leviticus 14:9 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.

Ver. 9. Even all his hair he shall shave off.] To show that repentance and mortification is not the work of a day, as he said in another case, [Ezra 10:13] but of a man’s whole life. There must be a daily shaving and paring of lusts and superfluities; which are to the soul as excrements are to the body. Yea, the more a sinner is exercised in mortification, the more he searcheth out his corruptions. Now he shaveth off the hair not of his head only, but of his beard and eyebrows.

Leviticus 14:10 And on the eighth day he shall take two he lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, and three tenth deals of fine flour [for] a meat offering, mingled with oil, and one log of oil.

Ver. 10. He shall take two he lambs.] That by these sacrifices he might be taught to seek for the cleansing of his soul, together with the healing of his body; that there might be mens sana in corpore sano, a cure done on both inside and outside too.

Leviticus 14:11 And the priest that maketh [him] clean shall present the man that is to be made clean, and those things, before the LORD, [at] the door of the tabernacle of the congregation:

Ver. 11. At the door of the tabernacle.] There God is to be found, viz., in the public assemblies, and that we are indeed, saith one, which we are at the door of the tabernacle.

Leviticus 14:12 And the priest shall take 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:

Ver. 12. And wave them.] This may note, (1.) Christ’s extreme sufferings; (2.) The waving of Christ in the preaching of the gospel; (3.) The motion of the sinner’s lips in confession and supplication.

Leviticus 14:13 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:

Ver. 13. It is most holy.] The way of holiness in and by Christ is an absolute way as ever was devised.

Leviticus 14:14 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:

Ver. 14. Upon the tip of the right ear.] To signify that all Christ’s sanctified ones have a hearing ear, an active hand, a nimble foot to walk in the way that is called holy.

Leviticus 14:15 And the priest shall take [some] of the log of oil, and pour [it] into the palm of his own left hand:

Ver. 15. Some of the log of oil.] Christ’s comforts must be warily propounded to men, and with good discretion.

Leviticus 14:16 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:

Ver. 16. Seven times.] This might note the perfection of the joys God hath for his, and our imperfection in believing it, in that it was so many times sprinkled.

Leviticus 14:17 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:

Ver. 17. Upon the tip of the right ear.] To assure him of comfort, in hearing, doing, persevering.

Leviticus 14:18 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: and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the LORD.

Ver. 18. Upon the head.] Everlasting joy shall be upon the heads of Christ’s ransomed ones. [Isaiah 35:10]

Leviticus 14:19 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:

Ver. 19. And afterward he shall kill the burnt offering.] We must be reconciled by Christ, our sin offering, before the sacrificing of ourselves - which is our reasonable service - can be accepted.

Leviticus 14:20 And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meat offering upon the altar: and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean.

Ver. 20. And the meat offering.] The meat offering annexed to the burnt offering shows, saith one, ^(a) either that Christians grow marvellously in this life, after they have full assurance of pardon of sin: or else that Christ will be their eternal food in heaven.

Leviticus 14:21 And if he [be] poor, and cannot get 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;

Ver. 21. And if he be poor.] there is a proviso for poor people: God makes no difference, but accepts of a little where much is to be had.

Leviticus 14:32 This [is] the law [of him] in whom [is] the plague of leprosy, whose hand is not able to get [that which pertaineth] to his cleansing.

Ver. 32. Whose hand is not able to get.] This is often urged, to show that the best that can be got must not be thought too good for God: and that if through carelessness or niggardice men do not their utmost, that is a just exception.

Leviticus 14:34 When ye be 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;

Ver. 34. Plague of leprosy in a house.] Such is the contagion of sin, that it will infect the very house we dwell in, the garments we wear, even all the creatures we use, so as all things are to us impure; [Titus 1:13] even the house of God also, [Leviticus 16:16] and his holy ordinances. The Canaanites had defiled the land from one end to another with their uncleannesses, [Ezra 9:11] and so infected the air. This law taught men, (1.) Upon all occasions to show their utter detestation of sin, but especially of idolatry; (2.) To take heed of despising admonition, lest they be utterly ruined, "and that without remedy." [Proverbs 29:1]

Leviticus 14:35 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:

Ver. 35. As it were a plague.] He might not flatly say, it was the leprosy, till the priest had so pronounced it.

Leviticus 14:36 Then the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest go [into it] 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:

Ver. 36. That all that is in the house be not made unclean.] As it will be when once the priest hath been there and pronounced it unclean. Learn here, saith a good interpreter, to prevent God’s last judgment, by sequestering ourselves betimes, from the contagion of sinners.