Cleansing from skin diseases
14
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 📚“This is the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: he shall be brought for the priest to see; 3 📚and the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall look, and if he sees that the mark of leprosy is healed in the leper,4 📚then the priest shall command that two live clean birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet and hyssop be brought for the one who is to be cleansed. 5 📚And the priest shall give a command to kill one of the birds in an earthenware pot over running water. 6 📚As for the live bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, the scarlet and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. 7 📚And seven times he shall sprinkle the one who is to be cleansed from leprosy, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the live bird go free in the open field.
14:4-7 This ritual was not for healing but for the cleansing of the person diseased. In the cleansing of the sinner before God both the death and resurrection of Christ have their part (see Rom 4:25). Both are at the very heart of the gospel which saves and sanctifies us (1 Cor 15:3-4, 17). Both the death and resurrection of Christ could not be signified by one bird – unless God chose to miraculously give it new life each time it was sacrificed, and He did not. So in the cleansing of the diseased person God appointed this way of two birds – one to be sacrificed, the other to be released after being dipped in the blood of the first, thus identifying the second with the first.
Hyssop used in this ritual (v 6) was a small plant that grew in that area and is in the Bible associated with cleansing and sanctification (Ex 12:22; Num 19:18; Ps 51:7; Heb 9:19). The earthenware vessel and running water may possibly signify Christ’s human nature and the Holy Spirit (human nature is sometimes likened to earthen vessels – Rom 9:21-23; 2 Cor 4:7. The Holy Spirit is symbolized by water in John 7:38-39).🪶
8 📚“And the one who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, so that he may be clean. And after that he shall come into the camp, and shall stay out of his tent for seven days.
14:8 The person to be declared clean had his part in the process. So does the believer now in the process of sanctification (Isa 1:16; Rom 6:11-13; 2 Cor 7:1; Gal 5:16; Eph 4:22-32; Col 3:1-10; 1 John 1:9).🪶
9 📚But it must come about on the seventh day that he shave off all the hair of his head and his beard and his eyebrows; he shall shave off all his hair; and he shall wash his clothes, and shall wash his body in water; and he shall be clean.
10 📚“And on the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, and three tenths of an ephah 📖 of fine flour as a grain offering, mixed with oil, and one log 📖 of oil. 11 📚And the priest who pronounces him clean shall present the man who is to be made clean, and those things, before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
12 📚“And the priest shall take one male lamb and offer it as a trespass offering, along with the log of oil, and wave them as a wave offering before the LORD. 13 📚And he shall kill the lamb in the place where he kills the sin offering and the burnt offering, in that holy place; for as the sin offering belongs to the priest, so does the trespass offering; it is most holy. 14 📚And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of the one who is being cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the large toe of his right foot.
15 📚And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand; 16 📚and the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before the LORD, 17 📚and of the rest of the oil that is in his hand the priest shall put on the tip of the right ear of the one who is being cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the large toe of his right foot, on the blood of the trespass offering. 18 📚And the rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall pour on the head of the one who is being cleansed; and the priest shall make atonement for him before the LORD.
14:15-18 The oil signifies God’s Holy Spirit. In God’s work of sanctification both the blood of Christ and the Spirit of God are necessary – 2 Thess 2:13; Heb 9:13-14; 10:10; 1 Pet 1:2.🪶
19 📚“And the priest shall offer the sin offering and make atonement for the one who is being cleansed from his uncleanness. And afterwards he shall kill the burnt offering.
14:19 Note on Lev 13:1-44.🪶
20 📚And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar; and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean.
21 📚“And if he is poor, and cannot get so much, then he shall take one lamb as a trespass offering to be waved, to make an atonement for him, and a tenth of an ephah 📖 of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and a log of oil, 22 📚and two doves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to get; and the one shall be a sin offering, and the other a burnt offering.
23 📚“And on the eighth day he shall bring them for his cleansing to the priest, before the LORD, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 24 📚And the priest shall take the lamb of the trespass offering, and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the LORD. 25 📚And he shall kill the lamb for the trespass offering, and the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and put it on the tip of the right ear of the one who is being cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the large toe of his right foot. 26 And the priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand; 27 and with his right finger the priest shall sprinkle some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the LORD. 28 And the priest shall put some of the oil that is in his hand on the tip of the right ear of the one who is being cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the large toe of his right foot, on the place where the blood of the trespass offering was put. 29 📚And the priest shall put the rest of the oil that is in his hand on the head of the one who is being cleansed, to make atonement for him before the LORD. 30 📚And he shall offer one of the doves, or of the young pigeons, such as he can get, 31 📚the one as a sin offering, and the other as a burnt offering, such as he is able to get, with the grain offering. And the priest shall make atonement for the one who is being cleansed before the LORD. 32 📚This is the law of the one who has the mark of leprosy, who is not able to get what belongs to his cleansing”.
Cleansing from mildew
33 And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 34 📚“When you have come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you as a possession, and I put the mark of leprosy 📖 in a house in the land of your possession, 35 📚and he who owns the house comes and tells the priest, saying, ‘It seems to me there may be a mark in the house’, 36 📚then the priest shall command them to vacate the house, before the priest goes into it to see the mark, so that everything that is in the house is not made unclean. And afterwards the priest shall go in to see the house. 37 📚And he shall look at the mark, and, if the mark appearing in the walls of the house has greenish or reddish depressions, which appear lower than the wall, 38 📚then the priest shall leave the house by the door of the house, and close up the house for seven days. 39 📚And on the seventh day the priest shall come again and look, and if he sees that the mark has spread in the walls of the house, 40 📚then the priest shall command them to take away the stones where the mark is, and they shall throw them in an unclean place outside the city. 41 📚And he shall have the house scraped all around inside, and they shall pour the dust that they scrape off outside the city in an unclean place. 42 📚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.
43 📚“And if the mark comes again and breaks out in the house after he has taken away the stones, and after he has scraped the house, and after it is plastered, 44 📚then the priest shall come and look, and if he sees that the mark has spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house; it is unclean. 45 📚And he shall tear down the house, its stones and its timber, and all the mortar of the house, and carry them out of the city to an unclean place.
46 📚“Moreover, anyone who goes into the house all the time that it is closed off shall be unclean until evening. 47 📚And anyone who lies down in the house shall wash his clothes, and anyone who eats in the house shall wash his clothes.
48 📚“But after the house has been plastered, if the priest comes in and looks at it, and sees that the mark has not spread in the house, after the house was plastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the mark is healed. 49 📚And for cleansing the house he shall take two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop, 50 and he shall kill one of the birds in an earthenware pot over running water, 51 📚and he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the live bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times, 52 and cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the live bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet. 53 📚But he shall let the live bird go free outside the city in the open fields, and make atonement for the house; and it shall be clean.
54 📚“This is the law for all kinds of the mark of leprosy, and scale, 55 📚and for the leprosy of a garment, and of a house, 56 📚and for a swelling, and for a scab, and for a bright spot. 57 📚It is to teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean. This is the law of leprosy”.