Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead: Put out of the camp every leper. The exclusion of leprous persons from the camp in the wilderness, as from cities and villages afterward, was a sanatory measure taken according to prescribed rules, (Leviticus 13:1-59; Leviticus 14:1-57.) This exclusion of lepers from society has been acted upon ever since (Joseph Wolff's 'Journal,' p. 491); and it affords almost the only instance in which any kind of attention is paid in the East to the prevention of contagion. The usage still more or less prevails in the East among people who are indifferent about taking precautions in any cases of fever or pestilence, however malignant; but it is generally believed that in Asia the leprosy has now much abated in frequency and virulence. It usually appears in a comparatively mild form in Egypt, Palestine, and other countries where the disorder is, or was, endemic.
Lepers, however, are generally obliged to wear a distinctive badge, that people may know them at first sight and be warned to avoid them. Other means were adopted among the ancient Jews by putting their hand on their mouth and crying, "Unclean, unclean." But their general treatment, as to exclusion from society, was the same as now described. The association of the leper, however, in this passage, with those who were subject only to ceremonial uncleanness, shows that one important design in the temporary exile of such persons was to remove all impurities that reflected dishonour on the character and residence of Israel's king. And this vigilant care to maintain external cleanliness in the people was typically designed to teach them the practice of moral purity, or cleansing themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. The regulations made for ensuring cleanliness in the camp suggest the adoption of similar means for maintaining purity in the church. And although in large communities of Christians, it may be often difficult or delicate to do this, the suspension, or, in flagrant cases of sin, the total excommunication of the offender from the privileges and communion of the church is an imperative duty as necessary to the moral purity of the Christian, as the exclusion of the leper from the camp was to physical health and ceremonial purity in the Jewish Church.