| |  |
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge -
LEVITICUS 13
<< Leviticus 12 - Leviticus 14 >> - HELP - GR VIDEOS - GR YOUTUBE - TWITTER - SD1 YOUTUBE 
1 The laws and tokens whereby the priest is to be guided in
discerning the leprosy.
VERSE 1
* :1
VERSE 2
- rising. or, swelling. a scab.
* Le 14:56 De 28:27 Isa 3:17
- the plague of leprosy.
{Tzar„ƒth,} the Leprosy, from the Greek [ ,] from [ ,]
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.
* Le 14:3,35 Ex 4:6,7 Nu 12:10,12 2Sa 3:29 2Ki 5:1,27 2Ch 26:19-21
* Isa 1:6
- he shall.
* De 17:8,9; 24:8 Mal 2:7 Mt 8:4 Mr 1:44 Lu 5:14; 17:14
VERSE 3
- shall look.
* :2; 10:10 Eze 44:23 Hag 2:11 Mal 2:7 Ac 20:28 Ro 3:19,20; 7:7
* Heb 13:7 Re 2:23
- turned.
* Eze 16:30 Ho 7:9
- deeper.
* Ge 13:3 2Ti 2:16,17; 3:13
- pronounce.
* Mt 16:19; 18:17,18 Joh 20:23 Ro 3:19,20 1Co 5:4-6 2Th 3:14,15
* 1Ti 1:20
VERSE 4
- shut up.
* Nu 12:15 De 13:14 Eze 44:10 1Co 4:5 1Ti 5:24
VERSE 5
VERSE 6
- pronounce.
* Isa 11:3,4; 42:3 Ro 14:1 Jude 1:22,23- a scab.
* :2 De 32:5 Jas 3:2
- wash.
* Le 11:25,28,40; 14:8 1Ki 8:38,45 Ps 19:12 Pr 20:9 Ec 7:20
* Joh 13:8-10 2Co 7:1 Heb 9:10; 10:22 1Jo 1:7-9
VERSE 7
* :27,35,36 Ps 38:3 Isa 1:5,6 Ro 6:12-14 2Ti 2:16,17
VERSE 8
- See on ver.
* :3 Mt 15:7,8 Ac 8:21 Php 3:18,19 2Pe 2:19
VERSE 9
VERSE 10
- shall see him.
* :3,4 Nu 12:10-12 2Ki 5:27 2Ch 26:19,20
- quick raw flesh. Heb. the quickening of living flesh.
* :14,15,24 Pr 12:1 Am 5:10 Joh 3:19,20; 7:7
VERSE 11
- old leprosy.
* Mt 8:2-4 Lu 5:14
VERSE 12
- cover all.
* 1Ki 8:38 Job 40:4; 42:6 Isa 64:6 Joh 16:8,9 Ro 7:14 1Jo 1:8-10
VERSE 13
- 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 absorb 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.
* Isa 64:6 Joh 9:41
VERSE 14
VERSE 15
- raw flesh.
* Nu 22:34
VERSE 16
* Ro 7:14-24 Ga 1:14-16 Php 3:6-8 1Ti 1:13-15
VERSE 17
VERSE 18
- a boil.
* Ex 9:9; 15:26 2Ki 20:7 Job 2:7 Ps 38:3-7 Isa 38:21
VERSE 19
VERSE 20
- in sight. See on ver.
* :3 Mt 12:45 Joh 5:14 2Pe 2:20
VERSE 21
- shut him.
* 1Co 5:5
VERSE 22
- a plague. i,e., "The plague of leprosy."
* :22
VERSE 23
* Ge 38:26 2Sa 12:13 2Ch 19:2,3 Job 34:31,32; 40:4,5 Pr 28:13
* Mt 26:75 2Co 2:7 Ga 6:1 1Pe 4:2,3
VERSE 24
- a hot burning. Heb. a burning of fire.
* Isa 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.
VERSE 25
- turned white.
* :4,18-20
VERSE 26
- then the priest.
* :4,5,23
VERSE 27
- it is the plague of leprosy. See on ver.
* :2
VERSE 28
- And if.
* Ps 38:3-7,11 Jer 3:12-14; 8:4-6 Re 2:5
VERSE 29
* 1Ki 8:38; 12:28 2Ch 6:29 Ps 53:4 Isa 1:5; 5:20; 9:15 Mic 3:11
* Mt 6:23; 13:14,15 Joh 16:2,3 Ac 22:3,4; 26:9,10 2Co 4:3,4
* 2Th 2:11,12
VERSE 30
- scall.
* :34-37; 14:54
VERSE 31
- seven days.
* :4-6
VERSE 32
- yellow hair.
* :30 Mt 23:5 Lu 18:9-12 Ro 2:23
VERSE 33
- be shaven.
* 1Pe 5:6
VERSE 34
- the seventh.
* 1Jo 4:1 Jude 1:22 Re 2:2
- be not.
* :23
- and he shall. See on ver.
* :6
VERSE 35
* :7,27 2Ti 2:16,17; 3:13
VERSE 36
VERSE 37
- the priest.
* Joh 5:22
VERSE 38
VERSE 39
- if the bright.
* Ec 7:20 Ro 7:22-25 Jas 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
color of the hair. Their color 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.
VERSE 40
- hair is fallen off his head. Heb. head is pilled.
* :41 So 5:11 Ro 6:12,19; 8:10 Ga 4:13
VERSE 41
VERSE 42
- forehead.
* 2Ch 26:16-20
VERSE 43
VERSE 44
- utterly unclean.
* Job 36:14 Mt 6:23 2Pe 2:1,2 2Jo 1:8-10
- his plague.
* Isa 1:5
VERSE 45
- his clothes.
* Ge 37:29 2Sa 13:19 Job 1:20 Jer 3:25; 36:24 Joe 2:13
- and his head.
* Le 10:6; 21:10
- put.
* Eze 24:17,22 Mic 3:7
- Unclean.
* Job 42:6 Ps 51:3,5 Isa 6:5; 52:11; 64:6 La 4:15 Lu 5:8; 7:6,7
* Lu 17:12
VERSE 46
- the days.
* Pr 30:12
- without.
* Nu 5:2; 12:14,15 2Ki 7:3; 15:5 2Ch 26:21 La 1:1,8 1Co 5:5,9-13
* 2Th 3:6,14 1Ti 6:5 Heb 12:15,16 Re 21:27; 22:15
VERSE 47
- 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.
* Isa 3:16-24; 59:6; 64:6 Eze 16:16 Ro 13:12 Eph 4:22 Col 3:3
* Jude 1:23
VERSE 48
- thing made of. Heb. work of.
* :51 De 8:11 Jude 1:23 Re 3:4
VERSE 49
- thing of skin. Heb. vessel, or instrument. it is. See on
ver.
* :2
VERSE 50
- look upon.
* Eze 44:23
- plague.
* Ge 34:29
VERSE 51
- fretting leprosy.
* Le 14:44
VERSE 52
- burn.
* Le 11:33,35 De 7:25,26 Isa 30:22 Ac 19:19,20
- fretting leprosy.
* Le 14:44,45
VERSE 53
VERSE 54
- wash.
* Hag 1:6
VERSE 55
- after.
* Eze 24:13 Heb 6:4-8 2Pe 1:9; 2:20-22
- it be bare within or without. Heb. it be bald in the head
thereof, or in the forehead thereof.
VERSE 56
- rend it out.
* Eph 4:25
VERSE 57
- shalt burn.
* Isa 33:14 Mt 3:12; 22:7; 25:41 Re 21:8,27
VERSE 58
- be washed.
* 2Ki 5:10,14 Ps 51:2 2Co 7:1; 12:8 Heb 9:10 Re 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.
VERSE 59
- pronounce.
* 1Co 5:3-5 Re 19:8
GOTO NEXT CHAPTER - TREASURY OF SCRIPTURE KNOWLEDGE INDEX
|
