Leviticus 13

Le 13:1-59.

THE

LAWS AND

TOKENS IN

DISCERNING

LEPROSY.

2. When a man shall have in the skin, &c.--The fact of the

following rules for distinguishing the plague of leprosy being

incorporated with the Hebrew code of laws, proves the existence of the

odious disease among that people. But a short time, little more than a

year (if so long a period had elapsed since the exodus) when symptoms

of leprosy seem extensively to have appeared among them; and as they

could not be very liable to such a cutaneous disorder amid their active

journeyings and in the dry open air of Arabia, the seeds of the

disorder must have been laid in Egypt, where it has always been

endemic. There is every reason to believe that this was the case: that

the leprosy was not a family complaint, hereditary among the Hebrews,

but that they got it from intercourse with the Egyptians and from the

unfavorable circumstances of their condition in the house of bondage.

The great excitement and irritability of the skin in the hot and sandy

regions of the East produce a far greater predisposition to leprosy of

all kinds than in cooler temperatures; and cracks or blotches,

inflammations or even contusions of the skin, very often lead to these

in Arabia and Palestine, to some extent, but particularly in Egypt.

Besides, the subjugated and distressed state of the Hebrews in the

latter country, and the nature of their employment, must have rendered

them very liable to this as well as to various other blemishes and

misaffections of the skin; in the production of which there are no

causes more active or powerful than a depressed state of body and mind,

hard labor under a burning sun, the body constantly covered with the

excoriating dust of brick fields, and an impoverished diet--to all of

which the Israelites were exposed while under the Egyptian bondage. It

appears that, in consequence of these hardships, there was, even after

they had left Egypt, a general predisposition among the Hebrews to the

contagious forms of leprosy--so that it often occurred as a consequence

of various other affections of the skin. And hence all cutaneous

blemishes or blains--especially such as had a tendency to terminate in

leprosy--were watched with a jealous eye from the first [GOOD, Study of Medicine]. A swelling, a pimple,

or bright spot on the skin, created a strong ground of suspicion of a

man's being attacked by the dreaded disease.

then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, &c.--Like the

Egyptian priests, the Levites united the character of physician with

that of the sacred office; and on the appearance of any suspicious

eruptions on the skin, the person having these was brought before the

priest--not, however, to receive medical treatment, though it is not

improbable that some purifying remedies might be prescribed, but to be

examined with a view to those sanitary precautions which it belonged to

legislation to adopt.

3-6. the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the

flesh, &c.--The leprosy, as covering the person with a white, scaly

scurf, has always been accounted an offensive blemish rather than a

serious malady in the East, unless when it assumed its less common and

malignant forms. When a Hebrew priest, after a careful inspection,

discovered under the cutaneous blemish the distinctive signs of

contagious leprosy, the person was immediately pronounced unclean, and

is supposed to have been sent out of the camp to a lazaretto provided

for that purpose. If the symptoms appeared to be doubtful, he ordered

the person to be kept in domestic confinement for seven days, when he

was subjected to a second examination; and if during the previous week

the eruption had subsided or appeared to be harmless, he was instantly

discharged. But if the eruption continued unabated and still doubtful,

he was put under surveillance another week; at the end of which the

character of the disorder never failed to manifest itself, and he was

either doomed to perpetual exclusion from society or allowed to go at

large. A person who had thus been detained on suspicion, when at length

set at liberty, was obliged to "wash his clothes," as having been

tainted by ceremonial pollution; and the purification through which he

was required to go was, in the spirit of the Mosaic dispensation,

symbolical of that inward purity it was instituted to promote.

7, 8. But if the scab spread much abroad in the skin--Those

doubtful cases, when they assumed a malignant character, appeared in

one of two forms, apparently according to the particular constitution

of the skin or of the habit generally. The one was "somewhat dark"

[Le 13:6]

--that is, the obscure or dusky leprosy, in which the natural color of

the hair (which in Egypt and Palestine is black) is not changed, as is

repeatedly said in the sacred code, nor is there any depression in the

dusky spot, while the patches, instead of keeping stationary to their

first size, are perpetually enlarging their boundary. The patient

laboring under this form was pronounced unclean by the Hebrew priest or

physician, and hereby sentenced to a separation from his family and

friends--a decisive proof of its being contagious.

9-37. if the rising be white--This BRIGHT

WHITE leprosy is the most malignant and inveterate of all the

varieties the disease exhibits, and it was marked by the following

distinctive signs: A glossy white and spreading scale, upon an elevated

base, the elevation depressed in the middle, but without a change of

color; the black hair on the patches participating in the whiteness,

and the scaly patches themselves perpetually enlarging their boundary.

Several of these characteristics, taken separately, belong to other

blemishes of the skin as well; so that none of them was to be taken

alone, and it was only when the whole of them concurred that the Jewish

priest, in his capacity of physician, was to pronounce the disease a

malignant leprosy. If it spread over the entire frame without producing

any ulceration, it lost its contagious power by degrees; or, in other

words, it ran through its course and exhausted itself. In that case,

there being no longer any fear of further evil, either to the

individual himself or to the community, the patient was declared clean

society. If, on the contrary, the patches ulcerated and quick or

fungous flesh sprang up in them, the purulent matter of which, if

brought into contact with the skin of other persons, would be taken

into the constitution by means of absorbent vessels, the priest was at

once to pronounce it an inveterate leprosy. A temporary confinement

was them declared to be totally unnecessary, and he was regarded as

unclean for life [DR. GOOD].

Other skin affections, which had a tendency to terminate in leprosy,

though they were not decided symptoms when alone, were: "a boil"

(Le 13:18-23);

"a hot burning,"--that is, a fiery inflammation or carbuncle

(Le 13:24-28);

and "a dry scall"

(Le 13:29-37),

when the leprosy was distinguished by being deeper than the skin and

the hair became thin and yellow.

38, 39. If a man . . . or a woman have in the skin of

their flesh bright spots--This modification of the leprosy is

distinguished by a dull white color, and it is entirely a cutaneous

disorder, never injuring the constitution. It is described as not

penetrating below the skin of the flesh and as not rendering necessary

an exclusion from society. It is evident, then, that this common form

of leprosy is not contagious; otherwise Moses would have prescribed as

strict a quarantine in this as in the other cases. And hereby we see

the great superiority of the Mosaic law (which so accurately

distinguished the characteristics of the leprosy and preserved to

society the services of those who were laboring under the uncontagious

forms of the disease) over the customs and regulations of Eastern

countries in the present day, where all lepers are indiscriminately

proscribed and are avoided as unfit for free intercourse with their

fellow men.

40, 41. bald . . . forehead bald--The falling off of

the hair, when the baldness commences in the back part of the head, is

another symptom which creates a suspicion of leprosy. But it was not of

itself a decisive sign unless taken in connection with other tokens,

such as a "sore of a reddish white color"

[Le 13:43].

The Hebrews as well as other Orientals were accustomed to distinguish

between the forehead baldness, which might be natural, and that

baldness which might be the consequence of disease.

45. the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent,

&c.--The person who was declared affected with the leprosy forthwith

exhibited all the tokens of suffering from a heavy calamity. Rending

garments and uncovering the head were common signs of mourning. As to

"the putting a covering upon the upper lip," that means either wearing

a moustache, as the Hebrews used to shave the upper lip [CALMET], or simply keeping a hand over it. All these

external marks of grief were intended to proclaim, in addition to his

own exclamation "Unclean!" that the person was a leper, whose company

every one must shun.

46. he shall dwell alone; without the camp--in a lazaretto by

himself, or associated with other lepers

(2Ki 7:3, 8).

47-59. The garment . . . that the . . . leprosy

is in--It is well known that infectious diseases, such as scarlet

fever, measles, the plague, are latently imbibed and carried by the

clothes. But the language of this passage clearly indicates a disease

to which clothes themselves were subject, and which was followed by

effects on them analogous to those which malignant leprosy produces on

the human body--for similar regulations were made for the rigid

inspection of suspected garments by a priest as for the examination of

a leprous person. It has long been conjectured and recently ascertained

all leprosy as of the same nature, it is thought that this affords a

sufficient reason for the injunction in the Mosaic law to destroy the

clothes in which the disease, after careful observation, seemed to

manifest itself. Clothes are sometimes seen contaminated by this

disease in the West Indies and the southern parts of America [WHITLAW, Code of Health]; and it may be presumed

that, as the Hebrews were living in the desert where they had not the

convenience of frequent changes and washing, the clothes they wore and

the skin mats on which they lay, would be apt to breed infectious

vermin, which, being settled in the stuff, would imperceptibly gnaw it

and leave stains similar to those described by Moses. It is well known

that the wool of sheep dying of disease, if it had not been shorn from

the animal while living, and also skins, if not thoroughly prepared by

scouring, are liable to the effects described in this passage. The

stains are described as of a greenish or reddish color, according,

perhaps, to the color or nature of the ingredients used in preparing

them; for acids convert blue vegetable colors into red and alkalis

change then into green [BROWN]. It appears, then,

that the leprosy, though sometimes inflicted as a miraculous judgment

(Nu 12:10;

2Ki 5:27)

was a natural disease, which is known in Eastern countries still; while

the rules prescribed by the Hebrew legislator for distinguishing the

true character and varieties of the disease and which are far superior

to the method of treatment now followed in those regions, show the

divine wisdom by which he was guided. Doubtless the origin of the

disease is owing to some latent causes in nature; and perhaps a more

extended acquaintance with the archæology of Egypt and the

natural history of the adjacent countries, may confirm the opinion that

leprosy results from noxious insects or a putrid fermentation. But

whatever the origin or cause of the disease, the laws enacted by divine

authority regarding it, while they pointed in the first instance to

sanitary ends, were at the same time intended, by stimulating to

carefulness against ceremonial defilement, to foster a spirit of

religious fear and inward purity.