INTRODUCTION TO Leviticus 14 This chapter treats of the purification of lepers, and the rules to be observed therein; and first what the priest was to do for his cleansing when brought to him, by making use of two birds, with cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop, as directed, Leviticus 14:1; what he was to do for himself, shaving off all his hair, and...
And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... In order to deliver the same to Aaron, who, and the priests his successors, were chiefly to be concerned in the execution of the law given: saying; as follows.
The former chapter directed the priests how to convict a leper of ceremonial uncleanness. No prescriptions are given for his cure; but, when God had cured him, the priests are in this chapter directed how to cleanse him. The remedy here is only adapted to the ceremonial part of his disease; but the authority Christ gave to his ministers was to...
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. Jarchi says, from hence we learn that they were not to purify a leper in the night: he shall be brought unto the priest: not into the camp, or city, or house, where the priest was, for till he was cleansed he...
And the priest shall go forth out of the camp,.... A little without the camp, as Ben Gersom notes. There have been several goings forth of Christ our High Priest; first in the council and covenant of grace and peace, when he became the surety of his people; then in time by the assumption of human nature, when he came forth from his Father, and...
Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed,.... The command is by the priest, the taking is by any man, as Ben Gersom observes; anyone whom he shall command, the leper himself, or his friends. Aben Ezra interprets it, the priest shall take of his own; but he adds, there are some that explain it, the leper shall give them...
And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed,.... That is, shall command another priest to kill one of them, or an Israelite, as Aben Ezra; and who also observes, that some say the leper, or the butcher, as the Targum of Jonathan; the killing of this bird, not being a sacrifice, might be done without the camp, as it was, and not at...
As for the living bird, he shall take it,.... And dispose of it as after directed; for there was an use for that: and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop; which were all bound up in one bundle, but whether the living bird was joined to them is a question; according to Jarchi they were separate, the bird by itself, and the cedar wood,...
And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times,.... With the hyssop fastened to the cedar stick, with the scarlet wool or thread bound about it, dipped into the blood and water in the earthen vessel; to which the psalmist alludes, Psalms 51:7; the Egyptians had a great notion of "hyssop", as of a purifying...
And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes,.... That there may be no remains of the infection in them, and that they might not convey an ill scent to others: so the conversation garments of the saints are to be washed in the blood of the Lamb, Revelation 7:14; and shave off all his hair; what is here expressed in general is more...
But it shall be on the seventh day,.... After he was first brought to the priest, and cleansed by the two birds, taken and used for him as directed, and he had been shaved and washed: that he shall shave all his hair; a second time, whatsoever was grown in those seven days: all off his head, and his beard, and his eyebrows; even all his hair he...
And on the eighth day,.... From the leper's first appearance before the priest, and the day after the above things were done, in Leviticus 14:9: he shall take two he lambs without blemish; the one for a trespass offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and both typical of Christ the Lamb of God, without spot and blemish: and one ewe lamb of...
And the priest that maketh [him] clean,.... By the above rites and ceremonies, and the after sacrifices offered: shall present the man that is to be made clean, and those things before the Lord; the two he lambs, and the ewe lamb; and it seems also the meat offerings, and the log of oil; but these Ben Gersom excepts, and when the leper, with...
And the priest shall take one he lamb,.... One of the he lambs brought by the leper for his offering: and offer him for a trespass offering; for though the leprosy itself was a disorder or disease, and not sinful, yet the cause of it was sin, a trespass against God, and therefore a trespass offering must be offered: which was typical of Christ,...
And he shall slay the lamb,.... The priest, or the butcher, as the Targum of Jonathan, the slaughterer, the priest appointed for that service; at which time both the hands of the leper were laid upon it, as says the Misnah (p); for though the leper might not go into the court as yet, the sacrifice was brought to the door of the tabernacle for him...
And the priest shall take [some] of the blood of the trespass offering,.... According to the Misnah (r), two priests received the blood of it, one in a vessel and the other in his hand; he that received it in a vessel went and sprinkled it upon the wall (or top, as Maimonides (s)) of the altar; and he that received it in his hand went to the...
And the priest shall take [some] of the log of oil,.... With his right hand, as the Targum of Jonathan adds: and pour [it] into the palm of his own left hand: but in the original text it is, "pour it into the palm of the priest's left hand": and it is a question, whether he or another priest is meant; according to Aben Ezra, the oil was to be...
And the priest shall dip his right finger,.... The finger of his right hand, the forefinger of it: in the oil that [is] in his left hand; either that is in his own left hand, or in the left hand of a fellow priest: and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord; that is, over against the house of the holy of holies, as...
And of the rest of the oil that [is] in his hand,.... That was either in the hand of the priest that was cleansing, or in the hand of his fellow priest; such of it as was left after some of it had been sprinkled seven times before the Lord: shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his...
And the remnant of the oil that [is] in the priests hand,.... Either in the hand of the priest that makes the leper clean, or in the hand of a fellow priest; what was left of that after some of it had been sprinkled seven times before the Lord, and after other of it had been put upon the several parts of the leper, as directed in Leviticus 14:17:...