THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
13:49. If it be infected with a white or red spot, it shall be accounted the leprosy, and shall be shewn to the priest.
13:50. And he shall look upon it and shall shut it up seven days.
13:51. And on the seventh day when he looketh on it again, if he find that it is grown, it is a fixed leprosy. He shall judge the garment unclean, and every thing wherein it shall be found.
13:52. And therefore it shall be burnt with fire.
13:53. But if he see that it is not grown,
13:54. He shall give orders, and they shall wash that part wherein the leprosy is: and he shall shut it up other seven days.
13:55. And when he shall see that the former colour is not returned, nor yet the leprosy spread, he shall judge it unclean: and shall burn it with fire, for the leprosy has taken hold of the outside of the garment, or through the whole.
13:56. But if the place of the leprosy be somewhat dark, after the garment is washed, he shall tear it off, and divide it from that which is sound.
13:57. And if after this there appear in those places that before were without spot, a flying and wandering leprosy: it must be burnt with fire.
13:58. If it cease, he shall wash with water the parts that are pure, the second time: and they shall be clean.
13:59. This is the law touching the leprosy of any woollen or linen garment, either in the warp or woof, or any thing of skins: how it ought to be cleaned, or pronounced unclean.
Leviticus Chapter 14
The rites of sacrifices in cleansing the leprosy. Leprosy in houses.
14:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
14:2. This is the rite of a leper, when he is to be cleansed. He shall be brought to the priest:
14:3. Who going out of the camp, when he shall find that the leprosy is cleansed,
14:4. Shall command him that is to be purified, to offer for himself two living sparrows, which it is lawful to eat, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop.
14:5. And he shall command one of the sparrows to be immolated in an earthen vessel over living waters.
Living waters... That is, waters taken from a spring, brook, or river.
14:6. But the other that is alive, he shall dip, with the cedar wood, and the scarlet and the hyssop, in the blood of the sparrow that is immolated:
14:7. Wherewith he shall sprinkle him that is to be cleansed seven times, that he may be rightly purified. And he shall let go the living sparrow, that it may fly into the field.
14:8. And when the man hath washed his clothes, he shall shave all the hair of his body, and shall be washed with water: and being purified he shall enter into the camp, yet so that he tarry without his own tent seven days.
14:9. And on the seventh day he shall shave the hair of his head, and his beard and his eyebrows, and the hair of all his body. And having washed again his clothes, and his body,
14:10. On the eighth day, he shall take two lambs without blemish, and an ewe of a year old without blemish, and three tenths of flour tempered with oil for a sacrifice, and a sextary of oil apart.
A sextary... Heb. log: a measure of liquids, which was the twelfth part of a hin; and held about as much as six eggs.
14:11. And when the priest that purifieth the man, hath presented him, and all these things before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony:
14:12. He shall take a lamb, and offer it for a trespass offering with the sextary of oil. And having offered all before the Lord,
14:13. He shall immolate the lamb, where the victim for sin is wont to be immolated, and the holocaust, that is, in the holy place. For as that which is for sin, so also the victim for a trespass offering pertaineth to the priest: it is holy of holies.
14:14. And the priest taking of the blood of the victim that was immolated for trespass, shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand and the great toe of his right foot.
Taking of the blood, etc... These ceremonies used in the cleansing of a leper, were mysterious and very significative. The sprinkling seven times with the blood of the little bird, the washing himself and his clothes, the shaving his hair and his beard, signify the means which are to be used in the reconciliation of a sinner, and the steps by which he is to return to God, viz., by the repeated application of the blood of Christ: the washing his conscience with the waters of compunction: and retrenching all vanities and superfluities, by employing all that is over and above what is necessary in alms deeds. The sin offering, and the holocaust or burnt offering, which he was to offer at his cleansing, signify the sacrifice of a contrite and humble heart, and that of adoration in spirit and truth, with gratitude and thankfulness, for the forgiveness of sins, with which we are ever to appear before the Almighty. The touching the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the great toe of the right foot, first with the blood of the victim, and then with the remainder of the oil, which had been sprinkled seven times before the Lord, signify the application of the blood of Christ, and the unction of the sevenfold grace of the Holy Ghost; to the sinner's right ear, that he may duly hearken to and obey the law of God; and to his right hand and foot, that the works of his hands, and all the steps or affections of his soul, signified by the feet, may be rightly directed to God.
14:15. And he shall pour of the sextary of oil into his own left hand,
14:16. And shall dip his right finger in it, and sprinkle it before the Lord seven times.
14:17. And the rest of the oil in his left hand, he shall pour upon the tip of the right ear of him that is cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand and the great toe of his right foot, and upon the blood that was shed for trespass: