Bible Commentaries

rising

or, swelling. a scab.

14:56, Deuteronomy 28:27, Isaiah 3:17

the plague of leprosy

Tzaräâth, the Leprosy, from the Greek [lepra] from [lepis] a scale; so called, because in this disease the body is covered with thin white scales, so as to give it the appearance of snow. The leprosy is a dreadful, contagious disorder, common in Egypt and Syria, and generally manifests itself at first in the manner described in the text. Its commencement is imperceptible; there appearing only a few reddish spots on the skin, which are not attended with pain or any other symptom, but cannot be removed. It increases imperceptibly, and continues for some years to be more and more manifest. The spots become larger, spread over the whole skin, and are sometimes rather raised, though generally flat. When it increases the upper part of the nose swells, the nostrils distend, the nose becomes soft, swellings appear on the under jaws, the eyebrows are elevated, the ears grow thick, the ends of the fingers, feet, and toes, swell, the nails grow scaly, the joints of the hands and feet separate, the palms of hands and soles of the feet are ulcerated, and in its last stage the patient becomes horrible, and falls to pieces.

14:3,35, Exodus 4:6,7, Numbers 12:10,12, 2 Samuel 3:29, 2 Kings 5:1,27, 2 Chronicles 26:19-21, Isaiah 1:6

he shall

Deuteronomy 17:8,9, 24:8, Malachi 2:7, Matthew 8:4, Mark 1:44, Luke 5:14, 17:14

shall look

2, 10:10, Ezekiel 44:23, Haggai 2:11, Malachi 2:7, Acts 20:28, Romans 3:19,20, 7:7, Hebrews 13:7, Revelation 2:23

turned

Ezekiel 16:30, Hosea 7:9

deeper

Genesis 13:3, 2 Timothy 2:16,17, 3:13

pronounce

Matthew 16:19, 18:17,18, John 20:23, Romans 3:19,20, 1 Corinthians 5:4-6, 2 Thessalonians 3:14,15, 1 Timothy 1:20

shut up

Numbers 12:15, Deuteronomy 13:14, Ezekiel 44:10, 1 Corinthians 4:5, 1 Timothy 5:24

pronounce

Isaiah 11:3,4, 42:3, Romans 14:1, Jude 1:22,23

a scab

2, Deuteronomy 32:5, James 3:2

wash

11:25,28,40, 14:8, 1 Kings 8:38,45, Psalms 19:12, Proverbs 20:9, Ecclesiastes 7:20, John 13:8-10, 2 Corinthians 7:1, Hebrews 9:10, 10:22, 1 John 1:7-9

27,35,36, Psalms 38:3, Isaiah 1:5,6, Romans 6:12-14, 2 Timothy 2:16,17

3, Matthew 15:7,8, Acts 8:21, Philippians 3:18,19, 2 Peter 2:19

shall see him

3,4, Numbers 12:10-12, 2 Kings 5:27, 2 Chronicles 26:19,20

quick raw flesh

Heb. the quickening of living flesh.

14,15,24, Proverbs 12:1, Amos 5:10, John 3:19,20, 7:7

cover all

1 Kings 8:38, Job 40:4, 42:6, Isaiah 64:6, John 16:8,9, Romans 7:14, 1 John 1:8-10

if the leprosy

It may seem strange that the partial leper should be 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 being contagious, the total not. That there are two different species, or degrees, of the disease described here, is sufficiently evident: in one, the person 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 was deemed unclean, or 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 constitution by means of the absorbent vessels; but where the surface was perfectly dry; the absorbent vessels of another, coming in contact with the diseased man, could imbibe nothing, and there was consequently but little or no danger of infection. This is the learned Dr. Mead's view of the subject; who thus accounts for the circumstances mentioned in the text.

he is clean

Isaiah 64:6, John 9:41

Leviticus 13:10

Romans 7:14-24, Galatians 1:14-16, Philippians 3:6-8, 1 Timothy 1:13-15

a boil

Exodus 9:9, 15:26, 2 Kings 20:7, Job 2:7, Psalms 38:3-7, Isaiah 38:21

in sight

3, Matthew 12:45, John 5:14, 2 Peter 2:20

shut him

1 Corinthians 5:5

a plague

i,e., "The plague of leprosy."

Genesis 38:26, 2 Samuel 12:13, 2 Chronicles 19:2,3, Job 34:31,32, 40:4,5, Proverbs 28:13, Matthew 26:75, 2 Corinthians 2:7, Galatians 6:1, 1 Peter 4:2,3

a hot burning

Heb. a burning of fire.

Isaiah 3:24; This is supposed to state the case of such as had been hurt by fire; which would leave a scar, in which the leprosy might appear, and which was to be distinguished by the rules here given.

turned white

4,18-20

then the priest

4,5,23

it is the plague of leprosy

See on ver.

1 Kings 8:38, 12:28, 2 Chronicles 6:29, Psalms 53:4, Isaiah 1:5, 5:20, 9:15, Micah 3:11, Matthew 6:23, 13:14,15, John 16:2,3, Acts 22:3,4, 26:9,10, 2 Corinthians 4:3,4, 2 Thessalonians 2:11,12

scall

34-37, 14:54

seven days

yellow hair

30, Matthew 23:5, Luke 18:9-12, Romans 2:23

the seventh

1 John 4:1, Jude 1:22, Revelation 2:2

be not

and he shall

7,27, 2 Timothy 2:16,17, 3:13

if the bright

Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 7:22-25, James 3:2

a freckled spot

The word bohak, from the Syriac behak, to be white, or shining, here rendered "a freckled spot," is used by the Arabs to denote a kind of leprosy, of which Niebuhr says, "Bohak is neither contagious nor dangerous. A black boy at Mocha, who was affected with this eruption, had here and there upon his body white spots. We were told that the use of sulphur had relieved this boy for a time, but had not entirely removed the disease." He adds subsequently from Forskal's papers, "The Arabs call a sort of leprosy, in which some little spots shew themselves here and there on the body, behaq; and it is without doubt the same as is named bohak, (Le ch. 13). They believe it to be so far from contagious, that one may sleep with a person affected without danger." "On the 15th day of May, 1765, I myself first saw the Bohak leprosy in a Jew at Mocha. The spots in this disease are of an unequal size. They do not shine; are not perceptibly higher than the skin; and do not change the colour of the hair. Their colour is an obscure white, inclining to red. The rest of the skin of the patient was darker than that of the people of the country in general; but the spots were not so white as the skin of an European, when not sun-burnt. The spots in this leprosy do not appear on the hands, or near the navel, but on the neck and face, yet not on that part where the hair grows thick. They gradually spread, and continue sometimes only about two months, but in some cases one or two years, and then disappear by degrees, of themselves. This disorder is neither contagious nor hereditary, nor does it occasion any inconvenience." Hence a person infected with the bohak is declared clean.

hair is fallen off his head

Heb. head is pilled.

41, Song of Solomon 5:11, Romans 6:12,19, 8:10, Galatians 4:13

utterly unclean

Job 36:14, Matthew 6:23, 2 Peter 2:1,2, 2 John 1:8-10

his plague

Isaiah 1:5

his clothes

Genesis 37:29, 2 Samuel 13:19, Job 1:20, Jeremiah 3:25, 36:24, Joel 2:13

and his head

10:6, 21:10

put

Ezekiel 24:17,22, Micah 3:7

Unclean

Job 42:6, Psalms 51:3,5, Isaiah 6:5, 52:11, 64:6, Lamentations 4:15, Luke 5:8, 7:6,7, Luke 17:12

the days

Proverbs 30:12

without

Numbers 5:2, 12:14,15, 2 Kings 7:3, 15:5, 2 Chronicles 26:21, Lamentations 1:1,8, 1 Corinthians 5:5,9-13, 2 Thessalonians 3:6,14, 1 Timothy 6:5, Hebrews 12:15,16, Revelation 21:27, 22:15

The garment

This leprosy in garments appears so strange to us, that it has induced some, with Bp. Patrick, to consider it as an extraordinary punishment inflicted by God upon the Israelites, as a sign of his high displeasure; while others consider the leprosy in clothes (and also houses) as having no relation to the leprosy in man. When Michaelis was considering the subject, he was told by a dealer in wool, that the wool of sheep which die of a disease, if it has not been shorn from the animal while living, is unfit to manufacture cloth, and liable to something like what Moses here describes, and which he imagines to be the plague of leprosy in garments. The whole account, however, as Dr. A. Clarke observes, seems to intimate that the garment was fretted by the contagion of the real leprosy; which it is probable was occasioned by a species of animacula, or vermin, burrowing in the skin, which we know to be the cause of the itch; these, by breeding in the garments, must necessarily multiply their kind, and fret the garments, i.e., corrode a portion of the finer parts, after the manner of moths, for their nourishment. The infection of garments has frequently been known to cause the worst species of scarlet fever, and even the plague; and those infected with psora, or itch animal, have communicated the disease even in six or seven years after the infection.

Isaiah 3:16-24, 59:6, 64:6, Ezekiel 16:16, Romans 13:12, Ephesians 4:22, Colossians 3:3, Jude 1:23

thing made of

Heb. work of.

51, Deuteronomy 8:11, Jude 1:23, Revelation 3:4

thing of skin

Heb. vessel, or instrument. it is.

fretting leprosy

14:44

burn

11:33,35, Deuteronomy 7:25,26, Isaiah 30:22, Acts 19:19,20

fretting leprosy

14:44,45

after

Ezekiel 24:13, Hebrews 6:4-8, 2 Peter 1:9, 2:20-22

it be bare within or without

Heb. it be bald in the head thereof, or in the forehead thereof.

shalt burn

Isaiah 33:14, Matthew 3:12, 22:7, 25:41, Revelation 21:8,27

be washed

2 Kings 5:10,14, Psalms 51:2, 2 Corinthians 7:1, 12:8, Hebrews 9:10, Revelation 1:5; The plague of leprosy was inflicted immediately from the hand of God, and came not from natural causes, as other diseases; and therefore must be managed according to a divine law. Miriam's leprosy, and Gehazi's and King Uzziah's were all the punishments of particular sins; and if generally it was so, no marvel there was so much care taken to distinguish it from a common distemper, that none might be looked upon as lying under this extraordinary token of Divine displeasure, but those that really were so.

This is the law of the plague of leprosy in a garment of woollen or linen, either in the warp, or woof, or any thing of skins, to pronounce it clean, or to pronounce it unclean.