Leviticuschapter 14
57 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
the priest shall order that two live clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop be brought for the one to be cleansed.
It stands in Two birds: one killed, one let fly, verses 1 to 9.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The law of cleansing a leper. The priest goes outside the camp; two living clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet, hyssop. One bird killed over running water; the living bird dipped in its blood with the cedar and scarlet and hyssop, then set free. The cleansed man washes his clothes, shaves off all his hair, bathes, and is re-admitted to the camp (but not yet to his tent). On the eighth day, sin, trespass, and burnt offerings; blood and oil on right ear, thumb, and great toe. The priestly pattern applied to the restored. The same law for mildew in a house. Jesus' healings of lepers (Mark 1:44) send them to this chapter's priest.
Context
Law · Moses · Leviticus overview
The world of this chapter
- Who
- A man who had been living outside the camp and was now healed, and later the householders of a country Israel had not yet entered
- Where
- The ground outside the camp where the priest goes out to look, then the camp, then the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, and in the second half a plastered stone house in a walled town
- When
- Israel encamped at Sinai, with the law of the house at verses 33 to 53 dated forward to the land. c. 1445 BC for the rite of the person, with the law of the house written for a settled country Israel entered around 1406 BC on the traditional dating
Historical context
The instruction is given to Moses, and the house law at verse 33 is given to Moses and Aaron together. The priest is the only official the chapter needs, and he begins by walking out of the camp, because a man shut out cannot come in to be examined.
The rite happens in stages over eight days, and it moves the man across three boundaries: into the camp on the first day, into his own tent on the seventh, and to the door of the sanctuary on the eighth.
A first hearer knew what the four items of verse 4 were for. Cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop appear together once more in the law at Numbers 19:6, cast into the fire of the red heifer, and hyssop was what Israel used to put the Passover blood on the doorposts at Exodus 12:22.
He also knew that fresh water meant running water rather than water drawn and standing, and that killing one bird over it in a clay pot and releasing the other dipped in its blood was a single act with two halves.
The three points marked with blood at verse 14 were immediately recognisable, because the only other place in the law that marks the right ear, the right thumb and the right big toe is the consecration of the priests at Exodus 29:20 and Leviticus 8:23 and 24.
The law of the house assumes what the wilderness did not have: stone walls, plaster, a town with an unclean place outside it, and owners who could strip a wall and re-plaster it. The house is emptied before the priest walks in, so its contents are spared.
Significance
For the man himself the chapter was the way back. Chapter 13 had put him outside and this one brought him in, and it did so with a ceremony longer and more careful than anything in the book except the Day of Atonement.
The repetition at verses 21 to 32 said plainly that the way back was not for sale. Twelve verses run the whole rite again at a lower price and drop no step, so a poor man received the same seven sprinklings, the same oil and the same blood on ear, thumb and toe.
The house law told a nation that had not yet entered the land that the same care would follow it there, and that a building could be repaired rather than simply condemned.
Where the chapter sits
Leviticus 14 falls in Laws of clean and unclean (chapters 11–15). Diet, childbirth, skin disease, mildew in garments and houses, bodily discharges, holiness traced through ordinary life.
Before it: Consecration of the priesthood, chapters 8–10. After it: Day of Atonement, chapters 16.
The whole shape of Leviticus→The structure of this chapter
Places1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Two birds: one killed, one let fly
Chapter 13 ordered no treatment and ended by putting the man outside the camp, and this chapter opens with the plague already healed. The priest goes forth out of the camp to look at him, because a man shut out cannot come in to be examined. Verse 2 calls this the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing, and Luke 17:14 sends ten healed men to it when Jesus tells them to go shew themselves unto the priests.
Leviticus 14:1
“The leper was excluded not only from the sanctuary but from the camp. The ceremony of restoration which he had to undergo was therefore twofold. The first part, performed outside the camp, entitled him to come within and to mix with his brethren, Lev 14:3-9. The second part, performed in the court of the tabernacle and separated from the first by an interval of seven days, restored him to all the privileges of the covenant with Yahweh, Lev. 14:10-32.”
Leviticus 14:2
“This shall be the law of the leper, in the day of his cleansing,.... Or the rules, rites, ceremonies, and sacrifices to be observed therein.”
Leviticus 14:3
“The priest shall go forth out of the camp - As the leper was separated from the people, and obliged, because of his uncleanness, to dwell without the camp, and could not be admitted till the priest had declared that he was clean; hence it was necessary that the priest should go out and inspect him, and, if healed, offer for him the sacrifices required, in order to his re-admission to the camp.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 14:3
“And the priest shall go forth out of the camp,.... A little without the camp, as Ben Gersom notes.”
Leviticus 14:3
“One of the birds (and the Jews say, if there was any difference, it must be the larger and better of the two) was to be killed over an earthen cup of spring water, so that the blood of the bird might discolour the water. This (as some other types) had its accomplishment in the death of Christ, when out of his pierced side there came water and blood, John xix.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The priest calls for two birds alive and clean, cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop, and those last three appear together again at Numbers 19:6, cast into the fire of the red heifer. One bird is killed in an earthen vessel over running water, water the Hebrew calls living, so blood and spring water are mixed before anything is sprinkled. Hyssop is what Israel used to put the passover blood on the door posts at Exodus 12:22, and it is the plant David asks for at Psalm 51:7.
Leviticus 14:4
“Two birds - The one to represent Christ as dying for his sins, the other to represent him as rising again for his purification or justification. Clean - Allowed for food and for sacrifice. Cedar- wood - A stick of cedar, to which the hyssop and one of the birds was tied by the scarlet thread.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 14:4
“Two birds alive and clean, etc. - Whether these birds were sparrows, or turtledoves, or pigeons, we know not; probably any kind of clean bird, or bird proper to be eaten, might be used on this occasion, though it is more likely that turtle-doves or pigeons were employed, because these appear to have been the only birds offered in sacrifice. Of the cedarwood, hyssop, clean bird, and scarlet wool or fillet, were made an aspergillum, or instrument to sprinkle with.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
ConnectionsNumbers 19:6
Leviticus 14:5
“Over running water - Literally, living, that is, spring water. The meaning appears to be this: Some water (about a quarter of a log, an eggshell and a half full, according to the rabbins) was taken from a spring, and put into a clean earthen vessel, and they killed the bird over this water, that the blood might drop into it; and in this blood and water mixed, they dipped the instrument before described, and sprinkled it seven times upon the person who was to be cleansed.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 14:5
“In an earthen-vessel - That is, over running water put in an earthen-vessel - Thus the blood of the bird and the water were mixed together, partly for the conveniency of sprinkling, and partly to signify Christ, who came by water and blood, 1 John v, 6.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The living bird is dipped in the blood of the dead one and let loose into the open field, and the man is sprinkled seven times and pronounced clean. One creature dies and the other carries the mark of that death away alive, which is the shape of the two goats at 16:8-22 in miniature. Adam Clarke calls the released bird a scape-bird on that ground. All of it happens outside the camp, before the man has leave to walk back in.
Leviticus 14:6
“The cedar the stateliest plant, and hyssop the meanest, are here used together in this service (see 1 Kings iv. 33 ); for those of the lowest rank in the church may be of use in their place, as well as those that are most eminent, 1 Cor. xii. Some make the slain bird to typify Christ dying for our sins, and the living bird Christ rising again for our justification.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 14:7
“Seven times - The seal of the covenant, expressed in the number seven (compare Lev 14:9), was renewed in sprinkling him who, during his leprosy, had lived as an outcast. The details of a restoration to health and freedom appear to be well expressed in the whole ceremony. Each of the birds represented the leper. They were to be of a clean kind, because they stood for one of the chosen race. The death-like state of the leper during his exclusion from the camp was expressed by killing one of the birds.”
shave off all his hair: The cleansing comes in stages. He washes his clothes, shaves off all his hair and bathes, and that admits him to the camp while he still waits seven days outside his own tent. On the seventh day he shaves a second time, head and beard and eyebrows and all his hair, washes again, and then he is clean. Three thresholds are crossed in eight days, the camp, the tent and the door of the tabernacle.
Leviticus 14:8
“And shave off all his hair - That the water by which he was to be washed should reach every part of his body, that he might be cleansed from whatever defilement might remain on any part of the surface of his body. The Egyptian priests shaved the whole body every third day, to prevent all manner of defilement.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 14:8
“A first baptism was that of the flood [of Noah] that cut away of sin. A second was that by the [Red] Sea and the cloud, for the cloud is a symbol of the Spirit, while the sea is a symbol of the water. A third is that of the [Levitical] law, for every unclean person washed himself with water and also washed his garments and thus entered into the camp. A fourth is that of John, which was an introductory baptism leading those thus baptized to penance, so that they might believe in Christ.”
John Damascene· written before 749· ORTHODOX FAITH 4.9patristic
Leviticus 14:9
“Thus those who have the comfort of the remission of their sins, by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ upon their consciences, must with the utmost care and caution cleanse themselves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit, and thoroughly purge themselves from their old sins; for every one that hath this hope in him will be concerned to purify himself.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 14:9
“The best of all types of the healing of the Spirit, was the healing of the leper. In his formal cleansing, consecration, and atonement by sacrifice (see the notes at Lev 14:9-20), the ministers of the sanctuary bore public witness that he was restored to the blessing of communion with his brethren and with Yahweh.”
Blood and oil on ear, thumb, and toe
The eighth day brings four offerings for one man, a trespass offering, a sin offering, a burnt offering and a meat offering, and with them a log of oil. The log is a measure named nowhere else in Scripture, and it belongs to this rite alone. The trespass offering leads, though that offering elsewhere answers a wrong that needs restitution at 5:15-16, and the fault recorded against this man is an illness. Matthew 8:4 points a healed leper at this passage, offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
Leviticus 14:10
“Two he-lambs - One for a trespass-offering, Lev 14:12, the other for a burnt-offering, Lev 14:19, Lev 14:20. One ewe-lamb - This was for a sin-offering Lev 14:19. Three tenth deals - Three parts of an ephah, or three omers; See all these measures explained in Exo 16:16 (note). The three tenth deals of flour were for a minchah, meat or gratitude-offering, Lev 14:20. The sin-offering was for his impurity; the trespass-offering for his transgression; and the gratitude-offering for his gracious cleansing. These constituted the offering which each was ordered to bring to the priest; see Mat 8:4.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 14:10
"And the offering of fine flour, sirs," I said, "which was prescribed to be presented on behalf of those purified from leprosy, was a type of the bread of the Eucharist, the celebration of which our Lord Jesus Christ prescribed, in remembrance of the suffering which He endured on behalf of those who are purified in soul from all iniquity, in order that we may at the same time thank God for having created the world, with all things therein, for the sake of man, and for delivering us from the evil in which we were, and for utterly overthrowing…
Justin Martyr· written before 165· Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter XLIpatristic
Leviticus 14:10
“Oil is added as a fit sign of God's grace and mercy, and of the leper's healing. A log is a measure containing six egg-shells full.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 14:11
“Maketh him clean - The healing is ascribed to God, ver. 13, but the ceremonial cleansing was an act of the priest using the rites which God had prescribed.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 14:12
“This trespass-offering, with its blood and the oil, must be regarded as the main feature in the ceremony: no alteration being permitted even in the case of the poor Lev 14:21-23. There appears to be no other case in which an entire victim was waved (see Lev 7:30) before Yahweh. The Levites are spoken of as “a wave offering,” Num 8:11-15 (see the margin). The man in this case, represented by his trespass-offering, was dedicated as a Wave-offering in like manner.”
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 14:12
“A trespass-offering - To teach them, that sin was the cause of leprosy, and of all diseases, and that these ceremonial observations had a farther meaning, to make them sensible of their spiritual diseases, that they might fly to God in Christ for the cure of them.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 14:12
“Wave-offering - See Exo 29:27, and Leviticus 7, where the reader will find an ample account of all the various offerings and sacrifices used among the Jews.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Blood goes on the tip of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand and the great toe of the right foot. The other place in the law that puts blood on those three points is the consecration of the priests at Exodus 29:20 and Leviticus 8:23-24, so a man shut out of the camp comes back marked where a priest is marked. Oil follows on the same three points, laid on the blood, and the rest of it is poured on his head as Aaron was anointed at 8:12. Atonement is said over him three times in three verses, and verse 20 closes the rite by saying he shall be clean.
Leviticus 14:14
“In the same way, and with the same significance as in Lev 8:23. It is said that a portion of the blood was caught by the priest in the palm of his hand as it ran from the victim.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 14:14
"The blood" (says the learned bishop Patrick) "seems to have been a token of forgiveness, the oil of healing," for God first forgiveth our iniquities and then healeth our diseases, Ps. ciii. Wherever the blood of Christ is applied for justification the oil of the Spirit is applied for sanctification; for these two are inseparable and both necessary to our acceptance with God.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 14:15
“The oil - As the blood signified Christ's blood by which men obtained remission of sins, so the oil noted the graces of the spirit by which they are renewed.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 14:16
“The sevenfold sprinkling of the oil before the sanctuary, in addition to the waving of it, seems to have been intended to consecrate it to represent the spiritual gift consequent upon the covenant, the sealing of which had been figured by the sacramental blood of the offering.”
Leviticus 14:17
“Him that is to be cleansed - Of him that has been cleansed. The significance of the act is similar to that in Lev 8:11, Lev 8:15.”
Leviticus 14:19
“The cleansed leper was now in a position to avail himself of the accustomed law of sacrifice as one completely restored. The ewe lamb was now offered in his behalf as a sin-offering, one of the young rams as a burnt-offering, and the fine flour mingled with oil as a meat-offering.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 14:19
“The burnt-offering, besides the atonement that was made by it, was a thankful acknowledgment of God's mercy to him: and the more immediate the hand of God was both in the sickness and in the cure the more reason he had thus to give glory to him, and thus, as our Saviour speaks ( Mark i.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
If he is poor: one lamb and two birdsvv. 21-32
Twelve verses run the whole rite again for a man who cannot afford it, and no step of the ceremony is dropped. Two of the three lambs become two turtledoves or two young pigeons and the flour falls from three tenth deals to one, while the log of oil, the waving, the seven sprinklings and the blood on ear, thumb and toe stand exactly as before. The animal that poverty never removes is the lamb of the trespass offering. Matthew Henry notes that the same ceremony was used for the poor as for the rich.
Leviticus 14:21
“And if he be poor - he shall take one lamb - There could be no cleansing without a sacrifice. On this ground the apostle has properly observed that all things under the law are purged with blood; and that without shedding of blood there is no remission. Even if the person be poor, he must provide one lamb; this could not be dispensed with: - so every soul to whom the word of Divine revelation comes, must bring that Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. There is no redemption but in his blood.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 14:21
“But it is observable that though a meaner sacrifice was accepted from the poor, yet the very same ceremony was used for them as was for the rich; for their souls are as precious and Christ and his gospel are the same to both. Let not us therefore have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons, Jam. ii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 14:24
“And the priest shall take the lamb of the trespass offering,.... See Gill on Lev 14:12.”
Leviticus 14:25
“And he shall kill the lamb of the trespass offering,.... See Gill on Lev 14:13. and the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, &c. See Gill on Lev 14:14.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 14:25
“That blood seems to have been a token of forgiveness, the oil of healing: For God first forgiveth our iniquities, and then healeth our diseases. When the leper was anointed, the oil must have blood under it, to signify that all the graces and comforts of the spirit, all his sanctifying influences are owing to the death of Christ. It is by his blood alone that we are sanctified.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 14:26
“And the priest shall pour of the oil into the palm of his own left hand. See Gill on Lev 14:15.”
Leviticus 14:27
“And the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil,.... See Gill on Lev 14:16.”
Leviticus 14:28
“And the priest shall put of the oil that is in his hand,.... See Gill on Lev 14:17.”
Leviticus 14:29
“And the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand,.... See Gill on Lev 14:18.”
Leviticus 14:30
“And he shall offer the one of the turtledoves,.... See Gill on Lev 14:22.”
Leviticus 14:31
“Even such as he is able to get, the one for a sin offering,.... See Gill on Lev 14:22.”
Leprosy in the walls of a house
This law is dated forward to a country Israel has not entered, since tents in the wilderness have no stone walls to hold a plague. The LORD says I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession, and it is the one place in these two chapters where the affliction is claimed in the first person. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown record that some readers take that as a judgment sent on the owner while others read it as the ordinary way Scripture speaks of what God permits, and Adam Clarke takes the second reading. The house is emptied before the priest walks in, so its contents are spared, and nothing inside counts unclean until he has looked and spoken.
Leviticus 14:33
“This section is separated from that on leprosy in clothing Lev 13:47-59 with which it would seem to be naturally connected, and is placed last of all the laws concerning leprosy, probably on account of its being wholly prospective. While the Israelites were in the wilderness, the materials of their dwellings were of nearly the same nature as those of their clothing, and would be liable to the same sort of decay. They were therefore included under the same law.”
Leviticus 14:34
“The words, "I put the leprosy," has led many to think that this plague was a judicial infliction from heaven for the sins of the owner; while others do not regard it in this light, it being common in Scripture to represent God as doing that which He only permits in His providence to be done.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 14:35
“Sin, where that reigns in a house, is a plague there, as it is in a heart. And masters of families should be aware and afraid of the first appearance of gross sin in their families, and put away the iniquity, whatever it is, far from their tabernacles, Job xxii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 14:36
“That all be not made unclean - It is observable here, that neither the people nor the household stuff were polluted till the leprosy was discovered and declared by the priest, to shew what great difference God makes between sins of ignorance, and sins against knowledge.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The vocabulary of the man's case is now applied to masonry, shut up seven days, spread, unclean. If the plague has spread the infected stones are pulled out and thrown into an unclean place outside the city, the walls are scraped, the dust is carried out, and new stones and fresh morter go in. A house is given a repair that no man in chapter 13 was offered. If the plague breaks out again after all of that, the text calls it a fretting leprosy and the whole house is broken down and carried out of the city.
Leviticus 14:38
“Then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house,.... Thereby signifying that it was not fit to be inhabited, and there standing to see it shut up, as follows: and shut up the house seven days: to observe what alteration would be made in that time, and which would sooner be discovered in a house uninhabited.”
Leviticus 14:39
“And the priest shall come again the seventh day, and shall look,.... On the seventh day from his shutting of it up, he shall open it again, go into it, and observe in what condition it is: and, behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house: the hollow strakes are become deeper, or the coloured spots are become larger: spreading was always a sign of leprosy, both in the bodies of men, and in garments.”
Leviticus 14:40
“This was like cutting off a gangrened limb, for the preservation of the rest of the body. Corruption should be purged out in time, before it spread; for a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 14:42
“And they shall take other stones,.... From elsewhere, such as are sound and whole: and put them in the place of these stones; such as will exactly answer them, as to number and size, and so fill up the space vacant by the removal of the other, and support the building: and he shall take other mortar, and plaster the house; the master of the house was to do this, or take care that it was done; but others by the order of the priest, as they took away the tainted stones, put others in their place.”
Leviticus 14:43
“And if the plague come again, and break out in the house,.... In the above signs of it: after that he hath taken away the stones; which were infected, or ordered them to be taken away: and after he hath scraped the house; so that there seemed to be no remains of the plague: and after it is plastered; to prevent if possible any return of it, but in vain.”
Leviticus 14:44
“But if [in a case of leprosy] after its rehabilitation and transformation, the priest again observes in that same house any of the old pocks or stains, may he pronounce it unclean and order its timbers and its stones and its whole structure to be torn down and cast forth into an unclean place. This is a type of the man, body and soul, who is transformed after baptism, that is to say, after the entrance of the priest, and then takes up once more the scabrous contaminations of the flesh.”
Tertullian· written before 220· ON PURITY 20.11.12patristic
Leviticus 14:45
“He shall break down the house - “On the suspicion of a house being infected, the priest examined it, and ordered it to be shut up seven days; if he found the plague, or signs of the plague, (hollow streaks, greenish or reddish), were not spread, he commanded it to be shut up seven days more.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Whoever goes into the shut-up house is unclean until the even, and whoever lies down or eats there washes his clothes, so the building hands its condition to the people who use it. If the plague has not spread after the plastering the priest pronounces the house clean because the plague is healed, and the two birds, cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop are brought out a second time. The living bird is let go out of the city into the open fields, and verse 53 says the priest shall make an atonement for the house. Atonement is made for a building here, and the same is done for the holy place itself at 16:16.
Leviticus 14:47
“And he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes,.... Which is more than bare entrance into it, and might be supposed the more to be infected by it, and therefore obliged to the washing of himself, and his garments: and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes; if he stayed no longer than while he ate half a piece of wheaten bread he was clean, but not if he stayed so long as to eat a like quantity of barley bread, and sat down and ate it with food (r). (r) Misn. Negaim, c.”
Leviticus 14:48
“As a house could not contract any impurity in the sight of God, the "atonement" which the priest was to make for it must either have a reference to the sins of its occupants or to the ceremonial process appointed for its purification, the very same as that observed for a leprous person.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 14:49
“And he shall take to cleanse the house,.... The priest, or by his fellow priest, as Aben Ezra, though some interpret it of the master of the house; in Lev 14:49, an account is given of the manner of cleansing a leprous house, which is the same with that of cleansing a leprous man, see notes on Lev 14:4-7, Two birds.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 14:49
“This intimated that the house was smitten for the man's sake (as bishop Patrick expresses it), and he was to look upon himself as preserved by divine mercy. The houses of Israelites are said to be dedicated ( Deut. xx.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 14:50
“And he shall kill the one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water. See Gill on Lev 14:5.”
Leviticus 14:51
“And he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird,.... See Gill on Lev 14:6. and sprinkle the house seven times. See Gill on Lev 14:7.”
Leviticus 14:52
“And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird,.... See Gill on Lev 14:4.”
Leviticus 14:53
“He shall let go the living bird - This might as well be called the scape-bird; as the goat, in Leviticus 16, is called the scape-goat. The rites are similar in both cases, and probably had nearly the same meaning. We have already taken occasion to observe (see the end of the preceding chapter at Lev 13:58 (note)) that the leprosy was strongly emblematical of sin; to which we may add here: - 1. That the leprosy was a disease generally acknowledged to be incurable by any human means; and therefore the Jews did not attempt to cure it.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The law for every plague and scallvv. 54-57
These four verses gather chapters 13 and 14 into one law, naming the leprosy of a man, of a garment and of a house, with the scall, the rising, the scab and the bright spot. The two chapters run 116 verses together, longer than the day of atonement chapter and longer than the law of any single offering. Verse 57 states the purpose as teaching when it is unclean, and when it is clean, so the law closes as an instrument of judgment rather than of healing.
Leviticus 14:54
“Uzziah's indeed continued to the day of his death, and Gehazi's was entailed upon his seed; but Miriam's lasted only seven days: we may suppose that it often wore off in process of time. Though God contend long, he will not contend for ever. The judgment of the cure, as well as that of the disease, was referred to the priest.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 14:55
“And for the leprosy of a garment,.... Of which see Lev 13:47, and of an house; largely treated of in this chapter, Lev 14:34.”
Leviticus 14:56
“And for a rising, and for a scab, and for a bright spot. Which were three sorts of leprosy in the skin of man's flesh; See Gill on Lev 13:2.”
Leviticus 14:57
“To teach - To direct the priest when to pronounce a person or house clean or unclean. So it was not left to the priests power or will, but they were tied to plain rules, such as the people might discern no less than the priest.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Andrew Bonar, A Commentary on Leviticus; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.