Leviticus 14 - The Popular Commentary by Paul E. Kretzmann

Bible Comments
  • Leviticus 14:7 open_in_new

    And they, in accordance with this express order of the Lord, appointed Kedesh in Galilee in Mount Naphtali, in the extreme northern part of Canaan, and Shechem in Mount Ephraim, in the approximate center, and Kirjath-arba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah, in the southern part of the land.

  • Leviticus 14:8 open_in_new

    And on the other side Jordan, by Jericho eastward, in the territory of the two and one half tribes, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, in the south, and Ramoth in Gilead, out of the tribe of Gad, in the center, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh, in the north, as Moses had directed, Deuteronomy 4:43.

  • Leviticus 14:9 open_in_new

    These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, literally, "the cities of appointment," and for the stranger that sojourneth among them, that whosoever killeth any person at unawares might flee thither, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation and thus had the opportunity of proving the absence of any evil intention in the slaying which had happened. The entire chapter testifies to the grace and mercy of the Lord. We Christians learn here that even sins that are done unintentionally, unwittingly, are nevertheless transgressions of God's holy Law, just as is the inherited tendency to all sins which we bear in our hearts. But God has placed before us the true city of refuge, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Every one who flees to the Redeemer and His mercy, relying upon His atonement alone, will in no wise be cast out.

  • Leviticus 14:34 open_in_new

    When ye be come in to the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, which is here definitely foreseen, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession, if it should be found that the Lord had afflicted a house in this way, as a reminder of the fact that not only their bodies, but also their places of habitation should be considered consecrated to the Lord,

  • Leviticus 14:35 open_in_new

    and he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house,

  • Leviticus 14:36 open_in_new

    then the priest shall command that they empty the house, clear the house by moving all the furniture and utensils out, before the priest go in to it to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean, for all the furniture mould be looked upon as unclean if it were still in the house when the sentence of condemnation would be passed upon the structure. And afterward the priest shall go in to see the house;

  • Leviticus 14:37 open_in_new

    and he shall look on the plague, on the spot or area which seems to be infected, and behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall, the reference undoubtedly being to fungous growths which partake of the nature of diseases, are often poisonous, and eat into the stones,

  • Leviticus 14:39 open_in_new

    And the priest shall come again the seventh day, according to the division of time usually observed in ceremonies of this kind, and shall look; and, behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house,

  • Leviticus 14:40 open_in_new

    then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is, which were affected by the fungous disease, and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city.

  • Leviticus 14:41 open_in_new

    And he shall cause the house to be scraped within round about, to remove all the loose and soft particles of lime or sand from the stones; and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without the city into an unclean place;

  • Leviticus 14:42 open_in_new

    and they shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones; and he shall take other mortar, and shall plaster the house.

  • Leviticus 14:43 open_in_new

    And if the plague come again, and break out in the house, after that he hath taken away the stones, and after he hath scraped the house, and after it is plastered, the infection thus being not merely on the surface, but indicating a deep-seated trouble,

  • Leviticus 14:44 open_in_new

    then the priest shall come and look, and, behold, if the plague be spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house, an infection which eats away the substance of the stones; it is unclean.

  • Leviticus 14:45 open_in_new

    And he shall break down the house, that is, the priest shall cause this to be done, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house, all the building materials used in its construction; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place.

  • Leviticus 14:47 open_in_new

    And he that lieth in the house, reclining there for the purpose of eating or sleeping, shall wash his clothes; and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes, not so much on account of the danger of infection as to prevent the contraction of symbolical uncleanness.

  • Leviticus 14:48 open_in_new

    And if the priest shall come in and look upon it, and, behold, the plague hath not spread in the house after the house was plastered, after the removal of the infected stones, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed.

  • Leviticus 14:51 open_in_new

    and he shall take the cedar-wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird and in the running water, the blood being mixed with the water in the earthen vessel, and sprinkle the house seven times.

  • Leviticus 14:52 open_in_new

    And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar-wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet;

  • Leviticus 14:53 open_in_new

    but he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open fields, and make an atonement for the house, as a structure infected with the uncleanness of sin, as it appeared in the fungous growth on the walls; and it shall be clean. The rite thus was exactly the same as that used for the leper without the camp, vv. 4-7, and the house was restored from its taint to its proper relations and purposes.

  • Leviticus 14:57 open_in_new

    to teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean; this is the law of leprosy, as it is contained in these two Chapter s.