Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 14:34
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;
Lev 14:34-57
Leprosy in a house.
Leprosy of house and garments
(see also Lev 13:49):–Few subjects have proved more perplexing to the student of Scripture than this. That human dwellings and garments should exhibit a similar disease to that which infects the human body seems at first sight to be highly improbable. We are indebted to the recent discoveries of the microscope for the first intimation of the true nature of the leprosy of house and garments. A careful examination of the Levitical narrative in the light of modern science leaves no room to doubt that the conclusions of Sommer, Kmtz, and other recent authors, who attribute a vegetable origin to this plague, are correct. The characteristics mentioned are such as can belong only to plants. There are some species of fungi which could have produced all the effects described, and whose form and colour answer admirably to the appearances presented by the leprosy. We are therefore safe in believing that the phenomena in question were caused by fungi. The language of Moses is evidently popular, not scientific, and may therefore be supposed to include not only different species, but even different genera and orders of fungi as concerned in the production of the effects described. The leprosy of the house consisted of reddish and greenish patches. The reddish patches on the wall were in all likelihood caused by the presence of a fungus well known under the common name of dry-rot, and called by botanists Merulius lachrymans. Builders have often painful evidence of the virulent and destructive nature of this scourge. It is frequent all the year round, being in this respect different from other fungi, which are usually confined to the season of decay. If once established dry-rot spreads with amazing rapidity, destroying the best houses in a very short time. The law regarding it in Leviticus is founded upon this property; seven days only were allowed for its development, so that its true nature might be placed beyond doubt. The precautions here adopted are in entire accordance with the nature and habits of fungi. By emptying the house of its furniture, shutting the doors and windows, and excluding the air and light, the very conditions were provided in which the dry-rot would luxuriate and come to maturity. If the walls were completely impregnated with its seed and spawn, this short period of trial would amply suffice to show the fact, and the building might then safely be condemned to undergo a process of purification. There are no means of restoring rotten timber to a sound condition, and the dry-rot can only be eradicated by removing the decayed and affected parts, clearing away all the spawn and destroying the germs with which the plaster and the other materials of the walls may have been impregnated. For this purpose the process of kyanising and burnetising have been recommended–that is, washing the walls or the woodwork with a strong solution of corrosive sublimate or chloride of zinc. If the dry-rot is not fairly established in a house it may be removed with tolerable ease by these processes; should the disease, however, have become widespread and deep-seated, no means of dealing with the evil can be depended upon, except that of removing altogether the corrupted and contagious matter and admitting a free circulation of air. This was exactly what the Jewish priest was commanded to do (verses 40-42). It often happens, however, that even this severe operation proves ineffectual; and after repeated repairs of the same nature, it is found that the building is so hopelessly ruined that it must be abandoned and dismantled (verses 43-45). Dr. Thomson, in The Land and the Book, mentions that the upper rooms of the houses in Palestine, if not constantly ventilated, become quickly covered with mould and are unfit to live in. In many cases the roofs of the houses are little better than earth rolled hard, and it is by no means uncommon to see grass springing into a short-lived existence upon them. Such habitations must be damp and peculiarly subject to the infection of fungi. During the months of November and December especially, fungi make their appearance in the wretched ephemeral abodes of the poorer classes; and in the walls of many a dwelling at the present day may be seen the same leprous appearances described by Moses three thousand years ago. When the Israelites entered Palestine they occupied the dwellings of the dispossessed aboriginal inhabitants instead of building new houses for themselves. And in these dwellings, as the Canaanites lived in the midst of moral and physical impurity, and were, moreover, ignorant of all sanitary conditions, the plague of leprosy would be very apt to manifest itself. The Bible speaks of it as sent expressly by God Himself: 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. It was so sent in mercy and not in judgment, to show to them, by a palpable proof appealing to the eye, what could not be so well revealed by other evidence. It was the visible manifestation of a hidden insidious unwholesomeness–the breaking out, as it were, of an internal and universal disease. It directed attention to the unhealthy character of the house, and stimulated inquiry as to how it could be remedied. Whereas if no such abnormal appearance presented itself, the inhabitants might remain unconsciously in the midst of conditions which would slowly but surely undermine their health, and in the end prove fatal. In the Levitical narrative we read that in the walls of the affected houses there were greenish as well as reddish streaks. These greenish streaks were caused by a much humbler kind of fungus than the tile Merulius lachrymans, or dry-rot, concerned in the production of tim reddish streaks. Every one is familiar with the common green mould, or Penicillium glaucum, of botanists. This fungus is extremely abundant everywhere, and seems to have been no less general in the ancient world, for we find traces of it pretty frequently in amber, mixed with fragments of lichens and mosses. It grows on all kinds of decaying substances, and is very protean in its appearance, assuming different forms according to the nature of the body or situation which it affects. Common mould grows on every substance, whether animal or vegetable, in a state of decay. It grows even upon the human body when it is in an enfeebled or disordered condition; and many diseases of the skin are owing to its efforts to develop and spread itself. The thrush in children, the muscardine so destructive to silkworms, the fungoid growth which so often causes the death of the common house-fly in autumn, are all different forms of the common mould. Its germs or spores are constantly floating in the air or swimming in the water in incalculable myriads, so that it is difficult to conceive how any place can be free from their presence. The atmosphere of our houses is loaded with them; and were we endowed with microscopic vision, we should see them dancing about in the draughts and currents of our rooms, or shining among the motes in the pencilled rays of sunshine. The ubiquity of mould has given rise to the theory of spontaneous generation, still held by a certain class of naturalists; but the immense profusion of its seeds, and their wonderful powers of adaptability under varying circumstances, and of entering through the finest conceivable apertures, will easily account for its presence in every situation, without being under the necessity of admitting what has never yet been proved–that substances in a particular state of decay can, without seeds or germs of any kind, generate low forms of life. Many medical men are of opinion that various zymotic diseases, if not originated, are increased by the presence of these minute cellules in the blood, and by their deleterious action in developing themselves. The injuries inflicted by fungi are indeed incalculable. But we have nevertheless a grand compensation in the benefits which they confer in accelerating, by their unparalleled rapidity of growth, the process of decay, and removing frown the atmosphere into their own tissues, where they arc innocuous, the putrescent effluvia of dead substances. They also economise the stock of organised material which has been slowly and tediously gained from the earth, air, and water, by preventing it from going back through decomposition to the mineral state, and preserving it in an organic form to be at once made available for the purposes of higher animal and plant life. Mould, for these reasons, is not so much an evil in itself as an indication of evil conditions in the World, and by minimising these it renders an all-important service in the economy of nature. Its great purpose is purely benevolent; but, like the storm intended to purify the atmosphere, it sometimes oversteps its limits, and proves injurious in particular cases. The minute regulations for inspecting and cleansing those houses where symptoms of leprosy appeared, indicate how complete was the sanitary system under which the ancient Israelites lived. God considered no part of their domestic and social economy, however humble, beneath His notice. Cleanliness in person, in dress, in dwellings, and in all outward appointments, was enforced by statutes of a peculiarly solemn character. All these ceremonial enactments were in the first instance intended for sanitary purposes. God had respect to the physical health and well-being of His people. He wished them to be patterns of purity, models of beauty, their bodies to be perfectly developed in the midst of the most favourable circumstances; and therefore the most admirable arrangements were made for securing cleanly, orderly, and healthy habitations. But not for purely physical purposes alone were the Levitical laws regarding the leprosy of the house enforced. They had also a spiritual significance. All experience tells us of the mysterious connection, founded upon the constitution of our twofold nature, between physical and moral evil–between external and internal impurity. The proverb, Cleanliness is next to godliness, is truer even than it is admitted to be. Physical filth has in innumerable instances been the means of turning away the Lord from the homes of those who endure it. For want of a little more room and a little more purity in their dwellings, the sublimest truths fall dead upon the ears of thousands. The salvation of the poor, though to them the gospel is preached, is in very many cases rendered impossible, humanly speaking, on account of the degrading conditions amid which they live, and the deadening, hardening influence which familiarity with noxious sights and smells produces. How often are the spiritual instructions of the district visitor thrown away on account of the unhallowed effects of filthy surroundings! Sad it is to think of the leprosy of the house being the type of the leprosy of sin which infects the earthly tabernacle of this body. We bear about with us this plague in all our members. From the crown of the head to the sole of the foot there is no soundness in us. Be it ours to put our natures entirely under the purifying power of Gods Spirit, so that they may be cleansed from all impure desires, &c. So much for the leprosy of the house. The leprosy of garments may have been caused by the same fungi. Precisely the same appearances manifested themselves in the one case as in the other. I am disposed to attribute the greenish streaks on the garments to the common green mould; for, as I have observed, it is ubiquitous, and grows as readily on clothes as on house walls, when left in damp, ill-ventilated, ill-lighted places. The reddish patches, however, seem to me to have been produced by the growth of the Sporendonema, or red mould, very common on cheese; or of the Palmella prodigiosa. This last-mentioned plant is occasionally found on damp walls in shady places, and on various articles of dress and food, sometimes extending itself over a considerable area. It is usually a gelatinous mass of the colour and general appearance of coagulated blood, whence it has received the famous name of Gory-dew. Though formerly ranked with the algae, or seaweed family, it is now ascertained by more accurate physiological researches to be a species of mould; so that, under whatever names we may class them, the plants which occasioned the strange appearances on houses and garments belong to the same tribe. Instances of reddish patches suddenly investing linen and woollen clothes are by no means confined to the Levitical narrative. A whole volume might be filled with similar examples. Along with other marvellous prodigies they abound in the mediaeval chronicles; and were they not authenticated by the most trustworthy evidence, we should hesitate–from their very extraordinary character–to accept them as true. It was by no means rare to find, in the Middle Ages, consecrated wafers and priestly vestments sprinkled with a minute red substance like blood. Such abnormal appearances were called Signacula, as tokens of the Saviours living body; and pilgrimages were not unfrequently made to witness them. In several cases the Jews were suspected, on account of their abhorrence of Christianity, of having caused sacramental hosts to bleed, and were, therefore, ruthlessly tormented and put to death in large numbers. Upwards of ten thousand were slaughtered at Rotil, near Frankfort, in 1296, for this reason. The bleeding of the host, produced in consequence of the scepticism of the officiating priest, gave rise to the miracle of Bolsena in 1264; the priests garment stained with this bloody-looking substance being preserved until recent times as a relic. This gave rise to the festival of the Corpus Christi founded by Urban
IV. Before the potato-blight broke out in 1846, red mould spots appeared on wet linen surfaces exposed to the air in bleaching-greens, as well as on household linen kept in damp places, in Ireland. In September, 1848, Dr. Eckard, of Berlin, while attending a cholera patient, observed the same production on a plate of potatoes which had been placed in a cupboard in the patients house. All these instances-and hundreds more might be enumerated–though somewhat exaggerated by the dilated eye of fear, were found by microscopic investigation to be caused by the extraordinary development in abnormal circumstances of the red mould. Occurring, as most of them did, before the outbreak of epidemics, which they were supposed to herald, they obviously point to the conclusion that they were developed by unhealthy conditions of the atmosphere. In ordinary times but few of the fungi which caused these alarming appearances are produced, and then only in obscure and isolated localities; but their seeds lie around us in immense profusion, waiting but the recurrence of similar atmospheric conditions as existed in former times, to exhibit as extraordinary a development. O Lord, how manifold are Thy works; in wisdom hast Thou made them all! is the thought that arises in the devout soul at the contemplation of the wonderful structure and history of these minute existences, which live and die unknown to the great majority of mankind. Even a mould, requiring the highest powers of the microscope for its examination, can become in His hands a mighty scourge or a transcendent benefit. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
House leprosy
The particular nature of this affection I cannot very certainly determine. Michaelis thinks it was a sort of mural efflorescence, which often appears in damp situations, cellars, and ground-floors, and so corrodes walls and plastering as to affect and damage everything near it, and sometimes quite destroying the entire building. Calmet thinks it was a disorder caused by animal-eulse which eroded the walls, and finally destroyed them, if left undisturbed. But perhaps we cannot do better than to agree with the Rabbins and early Christian Fathers, who believed that this leprosy was not natural, but sent of God as an extraordinary judgment, to compel men to the public acknowledgment and expiation of some undetected negligence or crime. It was the stone crying out of the wall against the sinner, and the beam out of the timber answering it (Hab 2:11). It came like a great domestic affliction, saying, This is not your rest, because it is polluted. It was the hand of God upon the forgetters of His law. It was the curse of the Lord, in the house of the wicked. Its typical significance will at once suggest itself. It plainly points to the fact that not only man, and his surroundings in life, but his very dwelling-place–the earth itself–is infected. The whole surface and framework of the world bespeaks infection, disobedience, and disorder. We must tear it with instruments of iron, and mix its mould with tears and sweat, before it will yield us bread. Walls and houses must be built to shelter us from its angry blasts. And with all that we can do, the sea will now and then engulf the proudest navies, and the hailstones blast the budding harvests, and famine and pestilence cut down the strength of empires, and earthquakes bury up great cities in a common tomb, and the sun and the moon flash down death in their rays, and the very winds come laden with destruction. And even in a moral aspect, the material world, though meant for spiritual as well as other good, has often been to man a source of defilement. Creation is a standing miracle to show us eternal power and Godhead. Every ray of light is an electric cord let down from the unknown heavens to lift our hearts into communion with the Father of light. Every night puts us into the midst of a sublime temple in which the tapers burn around the everlasting altar, and through which rolls the vesper anthem of the heavenly spheres, to inspire us with adoration. And the innumerable changes that pass before our eyes are but so many letters to spell out to us the name of the unknown God, in whom we live and have our being. But, how often have these very things tended to establish men in unbelief, and tempted them from the ways of piety and peace? How often have persons looked up into the starry sky, and reasoned, until they were led to say the gospel is a forgery?–or dug into the earth, and insisted that Moses was mistaken in its age?–or cut among the arteries and tissues of organic life, and denied mans immortality?–or watched the uniformity of Gods common laws, and pronounced a miracle impossible?–or dipped a little into physical science, and controverted the very existence of a deity? How often have earths products proven to be mere baits and lures to unguarded souls to lead them down to death? How have its wines tempted men to intemperance, and its beautiful groves to the licentiousness of the idolater? How frequently the very gold or silver of its rocks have taken the place of God Himself, and fastened everlasting condemnation on the worshipper? And what scene of beauty contained in this world, but has served to draw the heart of some one from the Lord? But it shall not always be so. The leprosy in our dwelling-place may pass away as well as leprosy in our persons, or in our clothing. God has appointed rites for its cleansing. The time is coming when there shall be no more curse. But it is to be the last thing cleansed. Regeneration begins first in the spirit. From the spirit it extends to the outward life, then to the redemption of the body. And after that comes the grand deliverance, when the creature (or creation) itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Not only our personal nature is to be renewed, but the very world in which we live. And it is only upon the theory of the ultimate and complete recovery of the world from all damage of sin, that the prescriptions now before us can be explained. The first thing to be done to a house found to be leprous, was to have the affected stones removed, the walls scraped, and the plastering renewed. This done, all parties were to wait to see what the effect would be upon the disorder. This evidently recalls the flood, and Gods dealings with the earth at that time. It was then that He broke up the old and tainted foundations, swept away the scum of its surface, and overcast it with a new order of things. All is therefore in waiting now, till our great High Priest and Judge shall come forth again to inspect the earth. After the lapse of an appropriate time of trial, which is left indefinite in the record, the priest was again to examine the house that had been thus dealt with; and if the plague had broken out again, and had spread in the house, he was to break it down, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house, and carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place. If the leprous symptoms were not stayed, it was to be completely and for ever demolished. There was no further hope for it. It perished in its uncleanness. I take this as a type, not of what is to befall the world, but of what would have befallen it without the redemption that has come in to stay its corruption and save it from ruin. How, then, was a leprous house to be cleansed? We have seen what was to be done to it upon the first appearance of the plague. We accordingly read that, after the lapse of a suitable time to test whether the infection was stayed, the priest shall come in, &c. (Lev 14:48-53). All this refers us back to the blood-shedding, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and holds forth the great fact that the world is made clean to us now, and will be entirely cleansed hereafter, by virtue of the redemptive work of our great High Priest. Because Jesus was slain, and has redeemed us to God by His blood, the saints may take it as their song, We shall reign on the earth. Some suppose that this dwelling-place of man is some day to fall to pieces, and pass away, and be no more. Had Christ not died, or having died, not risen again, it might be so; but now a light of glory rises upon its futurity. It shall not die, but live. Great changes may yet pass upon it, but it shall survive unharmed. This world was Heavens gift to man. It was his patrimonial estate. It was his sin that blighted it. And just so far as he is redeemed, he shall get his own again, and hold it by a charter written in his Saviours blood. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
The plague in the house
I fancy you have heard words like these before, though you might never have known that they were in the Bible. But you have heard mother or father, when worried and vexed, often say, It almost seems as if there was a plague in the house!
I. The kind of plague the text speaks about was a strange one. It first appeared in a little green or reddish spot, growing on the wall of the house. When that was noticed, the person who lived in the house had to go to the priest and say to him, It seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house. Then the priest came and looked at the spot, and ordered the house to be locked up for a week. At the end of that time, if the spot had not grown any larger, it was simply cut out, and the house was declared to be quite safe to dwell in. But if the spot had increased, then they knew that it was the plague, and all the stones round about it were taken out and new ones put in their places, and the old ones were carried away to a distance. But if, after all this care had been taken, the spot appeared again, then they knew it was no use trying further that way. This was a fretting leprosy, as it was called; so the house was ordered to be pulled down, and all its stones carried far away, and a new house built in its stead with entirely new stones.
II. Havent we plagues in the house now, something different from that perhaps, and yet something like too?
1. There is a bad temper. What a plague that is in the house! There is a sulky temper and a quick temper. The sulky one is when a boy or girl goes moping, moping, and wont speak or do anything cheerfully. It is a very hurtful plague in the house. Then there is the quick temper, up in a moment, over in a moment! Perhaps this is better than the other, if we are to make any distinction; but better be rid of bad temper altogether.
2. Selfishness is another plague in the house.
3. Disobedience is another plague in the house. No boy or girl ever yet came to good who did not try to obey father and mother.
III. Where the plague breaks out.
1. Where ventilation is bad. Now what fresh air is to the body, Gods Spirit is to the soul–that which keeps it fresh and free from plague. Maintain that Spirit in the house, prayer and love for God, and–striving to obey Him–no plague shall come nigh thy dwelling.
2. The plague also breaks out where sunshine never comes. What a healing thing is the sunshine! How glorious it can make even the dingiest street! The plague never comes where the sunshine is, and cheerfulness is the sunshine of the home. There was a great scholar once, Dr. Dwight, a big man with a great broad chest. Once when the students in the college were not getting on well, he said to them, Gentlemen, I see there is something wrong; you are becoming too melancholy. You must learn to laugh, thats the way to cure the plague. So he broadened his own chest, took a big breath, and burst into such a hearty laugh that all the others laughed too. Thats very good, he said, very good for a beginning; but see that you keep it up! And it is good practice in the house to have a hearty laugh. Keep cheerfulness there, and the plague wont trouble you. (J. Reid Howatt.)
The way to remove the plague
When plague, or pestilence, or war, or famine, come on a land, there are two classes of persons who act in opposite ways. One class will pray only that God may remove them, and do nothing more; another class will set about sanitary reform–a most precious and important thing–but they will do nothing more. Now, we are taught in this chapter that the two are to be combined. The priest not only applied to God, and offered sacrifices that the plague might be removed from the house, but he set to work and pulled down the stones, and broke the timbers, and scraped the house, and had it plastered and cleansed; and thus there was the most effective sanitary process, accompanied with the most sacred and Christian appeal to Him who is the Lord and the Giver of life; and who alone healeth, and when He healeth none can make ill. Now, it is the happy combination of these that constitutes in all things the perfection of Christian conduct. If we so think of means as to think of nothing else, we shall have no blessing; if we so think of, or engage in prayer, as to exclude means, we shall have no blessing. If we suppose that by attending to all that is just, and proper, and obligatory in sanitary measures, we may defy God, we blaspheme; but on the other hand, if we act as some, pray, and appoint days of fasting and of prayer, but do nothing to lift the poor from their degradation, to improve their dwellings, to increase their comforts, to give raiment to the naked, food to the hungry, a shelter and a home to them that have none, then that is downright hypocrisy. But if we can combine the two, by using all the means that God in His providence has given us, as vigorously as if all depended upon the means, and yet, while we do so, look up to God as if the means were worthless, and He must do all, then we shall combine the blessed heavenly benediction with the use of the most effective earthly means, and God, our own God, shall crown us with His blessing. (J. Cumming, D. D.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
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 Clarke on Le 13:47, and “Le 13:52“.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
34-48. leprosy in a houseThislaw was prospective, not to come into operation till the settlementof the Israelites in Canaan. The words, “I put the leprosy,”has led many to think that this plague was a judicial infliction fromheaven for the sins of the owner; while others do not regard it inthis light, it being common in Scripture to represent God as doingthat which He only permits in His providence to be done. Assuming itto have been a natural disease, a new difficulty arises as to whetherwe are to consider that the house had become infected by thecontagion of leprous occupiers; or that the leprosy was in the houseitself. It is evident that the latter was the true state of the case,from the furniture being removed out of it on the first suspicion ofdisease on the walls. Some have supposed that the name of leprosy wasanalogically applied to it by the Hebrews, as we speak of cancer intrees when they exhibit corrosive effects similar to what the diseaseso named produces on the human body; while others have pronounced ita mural efflorescence or species of mildew on the wall apt to beproduced in very damp situations, and which was followed by effectsso injurious to health as well as to the stability of a house,particularly in warm countries, as to demand the attention of alegislator. Moses enjoined the priests to follow the same course andduring the same period of time for ascertaining the true character ofthis disease as in human leprosy. If found leprous, the infectedparts were to be removed. If afterwards there appeared a risk of thecontagion spreading, the house was to be destroyed altogether and thematerials removed to a distance. The stones were probably rough,unhewn stones, built up without cement in the manner now frequentlyused in fences and plastered over, or else laid in mortar. The oldestexamples of architecture are of this character. The very same thinghas to be done still with houses infected with mural salt. The stonescovered with the nitrous incrustation must be removed, and if theinfected wall is suffered to remain, it must be plastered all overanew.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
When ye be come into the land of Canaan,…. Which as yet they were not come to, being in the wilderness, and so the following law concerning the leprosy in houses could not yet take place, they now dwelling in tents, and not in houses:
which I give to you for a possession; the Lord had given it to Abraham, and his seed, long ago, to be their inheritance, and now he was about to put them into the possession of it, which they were to hold as their own under God, their sovereign Lord and King:
and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession; by which it appears that this kind of leprosy was from the immediate hand of God, and was supernatural and miraculous, as the Jewish writers affirm f; nor is there anything in common, or at least in our parts of the world, that is answerable unto it; and from hence the same writers g conclude, that houses of Gentiles are exempt from it, only the houses of the Israelites in the land of Canaan had it; and they likewise except Jerusalem, and say h, that was not defiled with the plague of leprosy, as it is written, “and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession”; for Jerusalem was not divided among the tribes; and they suppose, whenever it was put into any house, it was on account of some sin or sins committed by the owner; and so the Targum of Jonathan, and there be found a man that builds his house with rapine and violence, then I will put the plague, &c. thought they commonly ascribe it to evil speaking, which they gather from the case of Miriam.
f Maimonides, Abarbinel, Abraham Seba, and others. g Misn. Negaim, c. 12. sect. 1. Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. h T. Bab. Eruvin, fol. 82. 2. Misn. Negaim, c. 12. sect. 4. Gersom in loc.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
34. When ye be come into the land. Another sort of leprosy is here treated of, as to which we may not unreasonably rejoice that it is now unknown to us. But, as God had honored that people with extraordinary privileges, so it was consistent that their ingratitude should be punished by more severe penalties, if they defiled the gifts in which they excelled. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that punishments were inflicted upon them, which it fills us with surprise and horror to hear of. It was a sad sight to behold the leprosy invading the human body; but there was something portentous to perceive it affecting their houses also, and driving out the owners and their families; for if they wittingly and voluntarily remained there, the contagion spread to themselves and all their furniture. But, since God marked with public ignominy those whose houses were struck with leprosy, He commands them to confess their guilt, and not only when the evil had made much advance, but when any suspicion of it had begun to exist. It appears, too, from the Law, that some were but lightly chastised: for, if after the priest’s inspection, in seven days the plague did not increase on the scraped walls, the possessor returned to his house. God punished others more severely, and it was necessary that the building should be utterly destroyed, because the pollution was incurable. But, although these were tokens of God’s wrath, yet, inexpiating the uncleanness, He exercised His people in the study of purity; for it was just as if He drove away from approaching His sanctuary those who came from an unclean house. The sense, then, was that. they should each of them diligently endeavor to keep their houses pure, and chaste, and free from every stain. But if, through God’s mercy, the plague ceased, a sacrifice of thanksgiving was to be offered, as for the human beings (who had been healed.) The next chapter, in which general pollutions and their purifications are not treated of, but only one kind of pollution is glanced at, which has reference to fleshly lust, would perhaps be suitably introduced under the Seventh Commandment; but it will presently appear from the context that it must be brought under this head.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(34) When ye be come into the land of Canaan.We have here the first of four instances in Leviticus of a law being given prospectively, having no immediate bearing on the condition of the people of Israel (see Lev. 19:23; Lev. 23:10; Lev. 25:2). This may be the reason why it is separated from the law of leprous men and garments, which we should naturally expect it would follow, instead of being preceded by the law of cleansing, and why it occupies the position of an appendix. Because it is here said the land of Canaan, the authorities during the second Temple maintained that this supernatural plague of leprous houses was peculiar to Palestine, and was unknown in any other country. They moreover adduce the words in a house of the land of your possession to account for the fact that houses in Palestine not in the possession of the Israelites,i.e., houses of Gentileswere exempt from this distemper, that the synagogues throughout the country which had no official dwelling-houses attached to them were never visited by this loathsome disease, and that none of the houses in Jerusalem were ever afflicted with it, because the holy city was never divided among the tribes. Whatever we may think of their interpretation, the testimony of these eye-witnesses who had to administer the laws of leprosy, that out of Palestine, that in certain houses in Palestine, and that in the whole of Jerusalem, this kind of distemper was unknown, remains unshaken.
And I put the plague of leprosy.The plague is here described as a supernatural one, proceeding from the immediate hand of God. Ordinary leprosy, as we are told by the authorities in the time of Christ, comes upon man for the following sins: for idolatry, for profaning the name of the Lord, unchastity, theft, slander, false witness, false judgment, perjury, infringing the borders of a neighbour, devising malicious plans, or creating discord between brothers. House leprosy is sent by God if the owner of a plot of land on the sacred soil builds his house with materials unlawfully acquired. Hence the ancient Chaldee Version of Jonathan renders the first part of this verse by, And if there be a man who buildeth his house with stolen goods, then I will put the plague, &c.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
34. Land of Canaan Since tents were not exposed to this form of uncleanness this legislation looks forward to Palestine, where the people would abide in the cities built by the Amorites. Jos 24:13. It has been suggested, but with no show of proof, that treasures had been hidden in certain houses by the Canaanites, and that the leprosy was sent to these in order that the gold and silver hidden in them might be revealed when they were demolished. “The people were far enough from Canaan at this moment, yet a law of regulation was laid down for their conduct when they came into possession of the land. This is another revelation of the method of divine government. Laws are made in advance.” Joseph Parker.
I put the plague of leprosy This expression is the ground of the opinion that the house leprosy was a supernatural infliction. But in the Hebrew idiom God is often said to do acts which he permits others to do, (Exo 7:13,) or which occur through physical laws.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lev 14:34. When ye be come into the land of Canaan, &c. After having spoken of the leprosy of persons and of garments, the sacred writer proceeds to that of houses, concerning which we have already said something in the first note on the last chapter, especially with respect to the opinion derived from the words, I put the plague into a house, &c. that this was a punishment inflicted by the hand of God. “Though it is more difficult to account for the infection of houses,” says Dr. Mead, “yet, upon a serious consideration of the different substances employed in building the walls of houses, such as stones, lime, bituminous earth, hair of animals, and other such things mixed together, it appears probable to me, that they may, by a kind of fermentation, produce those hollow, greenish or reddish strakes, in sight lower than the wall, or within the surface, (Lev 14:37.) which, as they in some measure resembled the leprosy on the human body, were named the leprosy in an house; for bodies of different natures very easily effervesce upon being blended together: wherefore we may reasonably suppose that this moisture or mouldiness, gradually coming forth and spreading on the walls, might prove very prejudicial to the inhabitants by its unwholesome smell, even without having recourse to any contagious quality in it. Something analogous to this is frequently observable in our own houses; where, when the walls are plaistered with bad mortar, the calcarious and nitrous salts sweat out upon their surface, of a colour almost as white as snow.” Calmet solves this extraordinary phaenomenon upon the same principles with those mentioned before; observing, that “a particular sort of vermin was bred in the mortar and stones of the infected houses. This was one of the tokens of a house being infected. There were some others besides, which were a kind of rust or scurf, that spread itself along the walls.
In all these cases, the priests were directed to shut the house up for a week: and it is probable, they made some kind of fumigation during that time, though no mention is made of it; else we cannot see how the bare shutting it up could contribute to the cure. If, upon the opening it again, they found the marks gone, they pronounced it clean; if not, they caused them to be scraped off every where, and the house to be shut up another seven days: but if that did not work the cure, they ordered it to be demolished, and such materials of it only to be preserved as were free from the infection, in order to build it up in some other place.” See Calmet’s Dissert. and the Univ. Hist. vol. 3: The Jewish writers, however, judge very differently of this matter, and consider this plague as a supernatural punishment for calumny and detraction in particular; an opinion, which seems to have arisen from the case of Miriam: and they tell us, that it first infected the walls of the house, and, the offender repenting, went no further; but, if he persisted, it proceeded to his household stuff; and, if he still went on, invaded his garments, and at last his body. This opinion may, perhaps, gain some confirmation from the remarks of a physician in the southern parts of France, that the leprosy, though hereditary, never goes beyond the third, or, at the most, the fourth generation; an observation, says Michaelis, which I use to explain the 5th verse of the 20th chapter of Exodus.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
“Handfuls of Purpose”
For All Gleaners
“When ye be come into the land of Canaan.” Lev 14:34
The people were far enough from Canaan at this moment, yet a law of regulation was laid down for their conduct when they came into possession of the land. This is another revelation of the method of divine government. Laws are made in advance. The law is not always given merely from day to day; the details of that law may be, so to say, announced morning by morning; but the great law itself is laid down from eternity, and therefore it covers all times and occasions, never altering in its spirit though continually adapting itself to varying conditions and institutions without losing one spark of its righteousness. This is the great law of God. The moment a man comes into the world the whole law is prescribed for him. There is a law of childhood, full of forbearance, pity, and hopefulness; a sublime accommodation of the Infinite to the helplessness of earliest years; there is a law of youth, having in it a touch of discipline and even severity, passion being curbed, and impatience being restrained greatly to the trial of the restricted spirit; there is a law provided for times of prosperity, so that every man knows what to do with his gold, and how to deport himself in plentiful harvests; there is also a law for the time of poverty, affliction, pain, and sorrow of every kind and name. In this way a man is permitted to look a long period in advance. He may not anticipate providences, but he can study the whole law which involves and determines every aspect and issue of human life. It is beautiful, too, to notice how an instruction of this kind acts as a stimulus upon human thought and conduct. It was well again and again to mention the very name of the promised land. So now it is well for us amid the cloud and tumult of life to hear about heaven and rest, about the pure land of eternal noon and the tender music of supernal harmony. We need great words mixed up with our little terms; as we need a great sky over-arching and blessing our little earth. It is wonderful how near the words of comfort are laid up side by side with terms of law and discipline. The Bible is a book of solaces. It does not give comfort for the sake of enervating men but for the sake of stimulating and strengthening them; every time Canaan is mentioned it is to stir up the soul to nobler duty and harder service: so every time we hear of heaven and its ineffable rest we should spring at earth’s duties and toils with a new energy and a deeper determination. The laws of heaven are fixed. Its law is a law of righteousness, and because of the perfectness of its purity is the absoluteness of its rest. God never allows us to suppose that entrance upon a higher state of life means exemption from law or rioting in the wantonness of licence. Heaven contains the fuller law, and because of our enlarging capacity and sanctified will, the amplitude and grandeur of that law will not deter us from heavenly service or cause us to become weary in all the solemn study of eternal thought. Let us cheer one another with these words. Again and again at the close of the weary day let us say to one another, “When we come into the land of Canaan.” Hymns about the heavenly land may be so used as to rouse us to completer service in the field of battle or in the quieter field of unknown but needful suffering.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Lev 14:34 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;
Ver. 34. Plague of leprosy in a house. ] Such is the contagion of sin, that it will infect the very house we dwell in, the garments we wear, even all the creatures we use, so as all things are to us impure; Tit 1:13 even the house of God also, Lev 16:16 and his holy ordinances. The Canaanites had defiled the land from one end to another with their uncleannesses, Ezr 9:11 and so infected the air. This law taught men, (1.) Upon all occasions to show their utter detestation of sin, but especially of idolatry; (2.) To take heed of despising admonition, lest they be utterly ruined, “and that without remedy.” Pro 29:1
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
When ye be come, &c. Here we have the first of four prospective laws, having no immediate hearing. See Lev 19:23; Lev 23:10; Lev 25:2. Hence it is separated from the law for leprous men and garments, in the form of an appendix.
plague. House leprosy is here represented as being supernatural. This was peculiar to Palestine and to houses of Israelites. The Targum of Jonathan renders this: “And if there be a man who buildeth his house with stolen goods, then I will put”, &c.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
When: Lev 23:10, Lev 25:2, Num 35:10, Deu 7:2, Deu 12:1, Deu 12:8, Deu 19:1, Deu 26:1, Deu 27:3
which I: Gen 12:7, Gen 13:17, Gen 17:8, Num 32:32, Deu 12:9, Deu 12:10, Deu 32:49, Jos 13:1
I put the plague of leprosy: It was probably from this text, that the leprosy has been in general considered to be a supernatural disease, inflicted immediately by God himself; but it cannot be inferred from this expression, as it is well known, that in Scripture, God is frequently represented as doing what, in the course of his providence, he only permits to be done. Exo 15:26, Deu 7:15, 1Sa 2:6, Pro 3:33, Isa 45:7, Amo 3:6, Amo 6:11, Mic 6:9
Reciprocal: Lev 14:55 – of a house Lev 19:23 – And when Num 15:2 – General Deu 17:14 – When thou 2Ch 26:20 – the Lord Zec 5:4 – and it shall remain
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lev 14:34. I put the plague of leprosy in a house Now they were in the wilderness, dwelt in tents, and had no houses; and therefore this law is made only as an appendix to the former laws concerning the leprosy, because it related not to their present state, but to their future settlement in Canaan. The leprosy in a house is as unaccountable as the leprosy in a garment: but if we do not see what natural causes can be assigned for it, we may resolve it into the power of the God of nature, who here saith, I put the leprosy in a house, as (Zec 5:4) his curse is said to enter into a house and consume it, with the stones and timber thereof.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
14:34 When ye be come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I {l} put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession;
(l) This declares that no plague nor punishment comes to man without God’s providence and his sending.