Of leprosy in a house. A. M. 2514. B. C. 1490. LEVITICUS. A. M. 2514. The manner of cleansing it. get that which pertaineth to his | 42 And they shall take other An. Exod. Isr. 2. cleansing. stones, and put them in the place An Exod. Isr. 2. 33 And the LORD spake unto of those stones; and he shall Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Abib or Nisan. 34 When ye be come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession; 35 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: 36 Then the priest shall command that they i empty the house, before the priest go into it to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house: 37 And he shall look on the plague, and, behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow streaks, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall; 38 Then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days: 39 And the priest shall come again the seventh day, and shall look and, behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house; 40 Then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is, and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city: 41 And he shall cause the house to be scraped within, round. about, and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off, without the city, into an unclean place: Ver. 10.- - Gen. xvii. 8; Num. xxxii. 22; Deut. vii. 1; xxxih: 49. Psa. xci. 10; Prov. iii. 33; Zech. v. 4. must bring that Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. There is no redemption but in his blood. Abib or Nisan. take other mortar and shall plaster the house. 43 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: . 44 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: it is unclean. 45 And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place. 46 Moreover he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up, shall be unclean until the even. 47 And he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes; and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes. 48 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; then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed. i 50 And he shall kilk the one of the birds in an earthen vessel, over running water: On the 51 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 Or, prepare.— * Chap. xiii. 51; Zech. v. 4. Heb. in coming in shall come in, &c. Ver. 4. manded it to be shut up seven days more. thirteenth day he revisited it; and if he found the infected place dim, or gone away, he took out that part of the wall, carried it out to an unclean place, mended the wall, and caused the whole house to be new plastered. It was then shut up a third seven days, and he came on the nineteenth, and if he found that the plague was broken out anew, he ordered the house to be pulled down." See Ainsworth, From all this may we not learn a lesson of instruction? If the means made use of by God and his ministers for the conversion of a sinner be, through his wilful obstinacy, rendered of no avail; if by his evil practices he trample under foot Verse 45. He shall break down the house] "On the blood of the covenant wherewith he might have the suspicion of a house being infected, the priest ex-been sanctified, and do despite to the Spirit of God; amined it, and ordered it to be shut up seven days; then God will pull down his house-dislodge his soul if he found the plague, or signs of the plague, (hollow from its earthly tabernacle, consign the house, the body, streaks, greenish or reddish,) were not spread, he com- to corruption, and the spirit to the perdition of ungodly Verse 34. When ye be come into the land—and I put the plague of leprosy]. It was probably from this text that the leprosy has been generally considered to be a disease inflicted immediately by God himself; but it is well known that in Scripture God is frequently represented as doing what, in the course of his providence, he only permits or suffers to be done. It is supposed that the infection of the house, as well as of the person and the garments, proceeded from animalcula. See the notes on chap. xiii. 47, 52. The manner of cleansing A. M. 2514. bird, and in the 'running water, | atonement for the house and it An. Exod. Isr. 2. and sprinkle the house seven shall be clean. 54 This is the law for all man B. C. 1490. An. Exod. Isr. 2. Abib or Nisan. 52 And he shall cleanse the house with ner of plague of leprosy, and scall, 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: 55 And for the Pleprosy of a garment, and of a house. 53 But he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open fields, and make an a Ver. 20. 56 And for a rising, and for a scab, and for a bright spot :.. S t 57 To teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean: this is the law of leprosy. — Chap. xiii. 30.- —P Chap. xiii. 47. Ver. 34. Deut. xxiv. 8; Ezek. xliv. 23.- Heb. in the day of the Chap. xiii. 2. men. Reader, see well how, it stands with thy soul. God is not mocked: what a man soweth, that shall he reap. Verse 53. He shall let go the living bird] This might as well be called the scape-bird; as the goat, in chap. xvi., is called the scape-goat. The rites are similar in both cases, and probably had nearly the same meaning. unclean, and in the day of the clean. 4. When the leper was cleansed, he was obliged by the law to offer a gift unto the Lord for his healing, as a proof of his gratitude, and an evidence of his obedience. When a sinner is restored to the Divine favour, he should offer continually the sacrifice of a grateful heart, and, in willing obedience, show forth the virtues of Him who has called him from darkness and wretchedness to marvellous light and happiness. We have already taken occasion to observe (see the end Reader, such was the leprosy, its destructive nature of the preceding chapter) that the leprosy was strongly and consequences, and the means of removing it; emblematical of sin; to which we may add here,- such is the spiritual evil represented by it, such its 1. That the leprosy was a disease generally acknow-consequences, and such the means by which alone it ledged to be incurable by any human means; and can be removed. The disease of sin, inflicted by the therefore the Jews did not attempt to cure it. What devil, can only be cured by the power of God. 1. Art is directed to be done here was not in order to cure thou a leper? Do the spots of this spiritual infection the leper, but to declare him cured and fit for society. begin to appear on thee? 2. Art thou young, and In like manner the contagion of sin, its guilt and its only entering into the ways of the world and sin? power, can only be removed by the hand of God; all Stop! bad habits are more easily conquered to-day means, without his especial influence, ean be of no avail. than they will be to-morrow. 3. Art thou stricken 2. The body must be sprinkled and washed, and a in years, and rooted in transgression? How kind is sacrifice offered for the sin of the soul, before the leper thy Maker to have preserved thee alive so long! Turn could be declared to be clean. To cleanse the spiritual from thy transgressions, humble thy soul before him, leper, the Lamb of God must be slain, and the sprink- confess thine iniquity and implore forgiveness. Seek, ling of his blood be applied. Without the shedding and thou shalt find. Behold the Lamb of God, who of this blood there is no remission. taketh away the sin of the world! 4. Hast thou been cleansed, and hast not returned to give glory to God? hast not continued in the truth, serving thy Maker and Saviour with a loving and obedient heart? How cutting is that word, Were there not TEN cleansed? but where are the NINE?. Thou art probably one of them. Be confounded at thy ingratitude, and distressed for thy backsliding; and apply a second time for the healing efficacy of the great Atonement. Turn, thou backslider; for he is married unto thee, and will heal thy backslidings, and will love thee freely. Amen. So be it, Lord Jesus! 3. When the leper was cleansed, he was obliged to show himself to the priest, whose province, it was to pronounce him clean, and declare him fit for intercourse with civil and religious society. When a sinner is converted from the error of his ways, it is the business, as it is the prerogative, of the ministers of Christ, after having duly acquainted themselves with every circumstance, to declare the person converted from sin to holiness, to unite him with the people of God, and admit him to all the ordinances which belong to the faithful.. CHAPTER XV. Laws concerning uncleanness of men, 1-12. Mode of cleansing, 13-15. casual, 16-18. Laws concerning the uncleanness of women, 19-27. Recapitulation of the ordinances relative to the preceding cases, 31–33. Of uncleanness, accidental and 555 Different uncleannesses, A. M. 2514. An. Exod. Isr. 2. LEVITICUS. AND the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When any man hath a running issue out of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean. a and laws respecting them. A. M. 2514. B. C. 1490. And he that toucheth the flesh of him that hath the issue An. Exod. Isr 2. shall wash his clothes, and bathe Abib or Nisan. himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 8 And if he that hath the issue spit upon him that is clean; then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 9 And what saddle soever he rideth upon that hath the issue shall be unclean. 10 And whosoever toucheth any thing that was under him shall be unclean until the even: and he that beareth any of those things shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 11 And whomsoever he toucheth that hath the issue, and hath not rinsed his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. Chapter xxii. 4; Num: v. 2; 2 Samuel iii. 29; Matt. ix. 20; Or, running of the reins.Mark v. 25; Luke viii. 43. NOTES ON CHAP. XV. Verse 2. When any man hath a running issue] The cases of natural uncleanness, both of men and women, mentioned in this chapter, taken in a theological point of view, are not of such importance to us as to render a particular description necessary, the letter of the text being, in general, plain enough. The disease mentioned in the former part of this chapter appears to some to have been either the consequence of a very bad infection, or of some criminal indulgence; for they find that it might be communicated in a variety of ways, which they imagine are here distinctly specified. On this ground the person was declared unclean, and all commerce and connection with him strictly forbidden. The Septuagint version renders hazzab, the man with the issue, by ỏ yovoppvns, the man with a gonorrhea, no less than nine times in this chapter; and that it means what in the present day is commonly understood by that disorder, taken not only in its mild but in its worst sense, they think there is little room to doubt. Hence they infer that a disease which is supposed to be comparatively recent in Europe, has existed almost from time immemorial in the Asiatic countries; that it ever has been, in certain measures, what it is now; and that it ever must be the effect of sensual indulgence, and illicit and extravagant intereourse between the sexes. The disgraceful disorder referred to here is a foul blot which the justice of God in the course of providence has made in general the inseparable consequent of these criminal indulgences, and serves in some measure to correct and restrain the vice itself. In countries where public prostitution was permitted, where it was even a religious ceremony among those who were idolaters, this disease must necessarily have been frequent and prevalent, When the pollutions and libertinism c Heb, vessel. - Chap. xi. 25; xvii. 15. of former times are considered, it seems rather strange that medical men should have adopted the opinion, and consumed so much time in endeavouring to prove it, viz., that the disease is modern.“ It must have existed, in certain measures, ever since prostitution prevailed in the world; and this has been in every nation of the earth from its earliest era. That the Israelites might have received it from the Egyptians, and that it must, through the Baal-peor and Ashteroth abominations which they learned and practised, have prevailed among the Moabites, &c., there can be little reason to doubt. Supposing this disease to be at all hinted at here, the laws and ordinances enjoined were at once wisely and graciously calculated to remove and prevent it. By contact, contagion of every kind is readily communicated; and to keep the whole from the diseased must be essential to the check and eradication of a contagious disorder. This was the wise and grand object of this most enlightened Legislator in the ordinances which he lays down in this chapter. I grant, however, that it was probably of a milder kind in ancient times; that it has gained strength and virulence by continuance; and that, associated with some foreign causes, it became greatly exacerbated in Europe about 1493, the time in which some have supposed it first began to exist, though there are strong evidences of it in this country ever since the eleventh century, Verse 11. And whomsoever he toucheth] Here we find that the saliva, sitting on the same seat, lying on the same bed, riding on the same saddle, or simple contact, was sufficient to render the person unclean, meaning, possibly, in certain cases, to communicate the disorder; and it is well known that in all these ways the contagion of this disorder may be communicated. Is it not even possible that the effluvia from 13 And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his, issue; then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean. 14 And on the eighth day he shall take to him two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, and come before the LORD unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and give them unto the priest: 15 And the priest shall offer them, the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burntoffering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the LORD, for his issue. 16 And if any man's seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the even. 19 And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even. 20 And every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean every thing * Chap. vi.28; xã. 32, 33. Ver. 28; chap. xiv. 8. Chap. xiv. 22, 23. Chap. xiv. 30, 31. Chap. xiv. 19, 31. * Chap. xxii. 4; Deut. xxiii. 10. the body of an infected person may be the means of communicating the disease? Sydenham expressly says that it may be communicated by lactation, handling, the saliva, sweat, and by the breath itself, as well as by those grosser means of which there is no question. But the term unclean, in this and the following cases, is generally understood in a mere legal sense, the rendering a person unfit for sacred ordinances. And as there was a mild kind of gonorrhoea that was brought on by excessive fatigue and the like, it may be that kind only which the law has in view in the above ordinances. Verse 18. They shall both bathe themselves] What a wonderful tendency had these ordinances to prevent all excesses! The pains which such persons must take, the separations which they must observe, and the privations which, in consequence, they must be 、 to those who have issues. also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean. A. M. 2514. B. C. 1490. An. Exod. Isr. 2. Abib or Nisan. 21 And whosoever toucheth her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 22 And whosoever toucheth any thing that she sat upon;. shall wash. his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean. until the even.. 23 And if it be on her bed, or on any thing whereon she sitteth, when he toucheth it, he shall be unclean until the even. . 24 And if any man lie with her at all, and her flowers be upon him, he shall be unclean seven days; and all the bed whereon he lieth shall be unclean. 25 And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days, out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation: she shall be unclean. 26 Every bed whereon she lieth,' all the days of her issue, shall be unto her as the bed of her separation and whatsoever she sitteth upon shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her separation. 27 And whosoever toucheth those things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 28 But if she be cleansed of her issue, then she shall number to herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean. 11 Sam. xxi. 4.m Chap. xii. 2. n Heb. in her separation. See chap. xx. 18. Matt. ix. 20; Mark v. 25; Luke viii. 43. Ver. 13. exposed to in the way of commerce, traffic, &c., would prevent them from making an unlawful use of lawful things. Verse 24. The common sense of all mankind has led them to avoid the gross impropriety referred to in this verse; and it has been a general opinion, that offspring obtained in this way has been infected with leprous, scrofulous, and other deeply radicated diseases,' from which they and their posterity have been scarcely ever freed. In chap. xx. 18, persons guilty of this are condemned to death; here only to a seven days' separation; because, in the former case, Moses speaks of the act when both the man and woman were acquainted with the situation in the latter, he speaks of a case where the circumstance was not known till afterwards; at least, so it appears these two places should be understood, so as to be reconciled. Method of cleansing A. M. 2514. A. M. 2514. 29 And on the eighth day, she | Israel from their uncleanness; An. Exod. Isr. 2. shall take unto her two turtles, that they die not in their un- An. Exod. Isr. 2. or two young pigeons, and bring cleanness, when they defile my them unto the priest, to the door of the taber- tabernacle that is among them. Abib or Nisan. 8 Abib or Nisan. 32 This is the law of him that hath an issue, nacle of the congregation. 30 And the priest shall offer the one for a" and of him whose seed goeth from him, and sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offer-is defiled therewith; ing; and the priest shall make an atonement 33 And of her that is sick of her flowers, and of him that hath an issue, of the man, and of the woman; and of him that lieth r Num. v. 3; * Verse 2.- - Yerse 16. Verse 19.- Verse 25. to us. He who cannot derive instruction from the chapter before him, and be led by a proper consideration of its contents to adore the wisdom and goodness of God, must have either a very stupid or a very vitiated mind. . Chap. xi. 47; Deut. xxiv. 8; Ezek. xliv. 23. xix. 13, 20; Ezek. v. 11; xxiii. 38. Verse 29. Two turtles, or two young pigeons] In all these cases moral pollution was ever considered as being less or more present, as even such infirmities sprang from the original defection of man. On these accounts sacrifices must be offered; and in the case of the woman, one of the birds above mentioned must be sacrificed as a sin-offering, the other as a burnt-God has purity of heart continually in view-that the offering, ver. 30. Verse 31. Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness] By this separation the cause became less frequent, and the contagion, if it did exist, was prevented from spreading. So pest-houses and fever-wards are constructed for the purpose of separating the infected from the sound; and thus contagion is lessened, and its diffusion prevented. That they die not] That life may be prolonged by these prudential cares; and that he who is morally and legally unclean, may not presume to enter into the tabernacle of God till purified, lest he provoke Divine justice to consume him, while attempting to worship with a polluted mind and impure hands. 1. How unpromising and how forbidding, at the first view, is this chapter! and yet how full of wise, humane, and moral regulations, manifesting at once the wisdom and kindness of the great Legislator! Every word of God is pure in itself, and of great importance 2. In all these ordinances we may plainly see that soul may be holy, he cuts off the occasions of sin; and that men may be obliged to keep within due bounds, and possess their vessels in sanctification and honour, he hedges up their way with briars and thorns, and renders transgression painful, shameful, and expensive. 3. Preventing grace is not less necessary than that which saves and, which preserves. These three chapters, avoided and neglected by most, contain lessons of instruction for all; and though many things contained in them belong exclusively to the Jewish people as to the letter, yet in their spirit and gracious design they form a part of those revealed things which are for us and for our children; and although they cannot be made the subject of public oral instruction, yet they are highly necessary to be known, and hence the advantage of reading the Scriptures in regular order in private. May we read so as to understand, and practise what we know, that, being wise unto salvation, we may walk as children of the light and of the day, in whom there shall be no occasion of stumbling! CHAPTER XVI. The solemn yearly expiation for the high priest, who must not come at all times into the holy place, 1, 2. He must take a bullock for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt-offering, bathe himself, and be dressed in his sacerdotal robes, 3, 4., He shall take two goats, one of which is to be determined by lot to be a sacrifice; the other to be a scape-goat, 5-10. He shall offer a bullock for himself and for his family, 11-14. And shall kill the goat as a sin-offering for the people, and sprinkle its blood upon the mercy-seat, and hallow the altar of burnt-offerings, 15-19. The scape-goat shall be then brought, on the head of which he shall lay his hands, and confess the iniquities of the children of Israel; after which the goat shall be permitted to escape to the wilderness, 20-22. After this Aaron shall bathe himself, and make a burnt offering for himself and for the people, 23-28., This is to be an everlasting statute, and the day on which the atonement is to be made shall be a Sabbath, or day of rest, through all their generations, 29-34. 558 |