But it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off: and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.
On the seventh day ... he shall shave all his hair ... This renewed ablution of his entire person and clothes, as well as shaving off all his hair, which was to be done with increased care and particularity, was required in a sanatory point of view, lest any relic of leprosy should remain lurking in his hair or garments. The circumstance of a priest being employed seems to imply that instructions suitable to the newly recovered leper would be given, and that the symbolical ceremonies used in the process of lustration would be explained. How far they were then understood we cannot tell. But we can trace some instructive analogies between the leprosy and the disease of sin, and between the rites observed in the process of cleansing leprosy and the provisions of the Gospel.
The chief of these analogies are, that, as it was only when a leper exhibited a certain change of state that orders were given by the priest for a sacrifice, so a sinner must be in the exercise of faith and penitence ere the benefits of the Gospel remedy can be enjoyed by him. The slain bird and the bird let loose are supposed together-for no one emblem from nature was sufficient-to typify, the one the death and the other the resurrection of Christ; while the washings, the shaving, and the sprinklings on him that had been leprous typified the requirements which led a believer to cleanse himself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord.