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Scott's Reference Library
Leviticus 13:1 through Leviticus 13:17 (NIV)
1The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 2“When anyone has a swelling or a rash or
a bright spot on his skin that may become an infectious skin disease, he must
be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons who is a priest. 3The
priest is to examine the sore on his skin, and if the hair in the sore has
turned white and the sore appears to be more than skin deep, it is an
infectious skin disease. When the priest examines him, he shall pronounce him
ceremonially unclean. 4If the spot on his skin is white but does not appear to
be more than skin deep and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest is to
put the infected person in isolation for seven days. 5On the seventh day the
priest is to examine him, and if he sees that the sore is unchanged and has not
spread in the skin, he is to keep him in isolation another seven days. 6On the
seventh day the priest is to examine him again, and if the sore has faded and
has not spread in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is only a
rash. The man must wash his clothes, and he will be clean. 7But if the rash does
spread in his skin after he has shown himself to the priest to be pronounced
clean, he must appear before the priest again. 8The priest is to examine him,
and if the rash has spread in the skin, he shall pronounce him unclean; it is an
infectious disease.
9“When anyone has an infectious skin disease, he must be brought to the priest.
10The priest is to examine him, and if there is a white swelling in the skin
that has turned the hair white and if there is raw flesh in the swelling, 11it
is a chronic skin disease and the priest shall pronounce him unclean. He is not
to put him in isolation, because he is already unclean.
12“If the disease breaks out all over his skin and, so far as the priest can
see, it covers all the skin of the infected person from head to foot, 13the
priest is to examine him, and if the disease has covered his whole body, he
shall pronounce that person clean. Since it has all turned white, he is clean.
14But whenever raw flesh appears on him, he will be unclean. 15When the priest
sees the raw flesh, he shall pronounce him unclean. The raw flesh is unclean; he
has an infectious disease. 16Should the raw flesh change and turn white, he must
go to the priest. 17The priest is to examine him, and if the sores have turned
white, the priest shall pronounce the infected person clean; then he will be
clean.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSES 1-17
The plague of leprosy was an uncleanness, rather than a disease. Christ is said
to cleanse lepers, not to cure them. Common as the leprosy was among the
Hebrews, during and after their residence in Egypt, we have no reason to believe
that it was known among them before. Their distressed state and employment in
that land must have rendered them liable to disease. But it was a plague often
inflicted immediately by the hand of God. Miriam’s leprosy, and Gehazi’s, and
king Uzziah’s, were punishments of particular sins; no marvel there was care
taken to distinguish it from a common distemper. The judgment of it was referred
to the priests. And it was a figure of the moral pollutions of men’s minds by
sin, which is the leprosy of the soul, defiling to the conscience, and from
which Christ alone can cleanse. The priest could only convict the leper, (by the
law is the knowledge of sin,) but Christ can cure the sinner, he can take away
sin. It is a work of great importance, but of great difficulty, to judge of our
spiritual state. We all have cause to suspect ourselves, being conscious of
sores and spots; but whether clean or unclean is the question. As there were
certain marks by which to know it was leprosy, so there are marks of such as are
in the gall of bitterness. The priest must take time in making his judgment.
This teaches all, both ministers and people, not to be hasty in censures, nor to
judge anything before the time. If some men’s sins go before unto judgment, the
sins of others follow after, and so do men’s good works. If the person suspected
were found to be clean, yet he must wash his clothes, because there had been
ground for the suspicion. We have need to be washed in the blood of Christ from
our spots, though not leprosy spots; for who can say, I am pure from sin?
See Healing