Leviticus 14:34

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

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; Leprosy in a house.

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;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; even the house of God also, and his holy ordinances. The Canaanites had defiled the land from one end to another with their uncleannesses, 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."

(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 Leviticus 19:23; Leviticus 23:10; Leviticus 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 Gentiles—were 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.

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 Leviticus 13:47, and "Leviticus 13:52".

Leprosy in houses (33–53) Nothing definite is known about these appearances on the walls of a house, which are here described as leprosy. It was regarded as a special visitation of God (Leviticus 14:34, ‘I put the plague’); the Jews believed that the plague was peculiar to Palestine and the chosen people, and was not found in the houses of foreigners. The owner of the house must say ‘There seemeth to me …’ (Leviticus 14:35): the decision whether the house is leprous rests with the priest. The order to empty the house before the priest comes to inspect shews that there is no fear of contagion. It has been suggested that the appearances were due to damp, or decay, or the growth of some vegetable matter. The diagnosis is similar to that for leprosy in man; the remedy is to remove the stones in which the plague is, and to scrape and plaister the house. If the plague is not stayed, the house must be pulled down. The method of purification if the house be pronounced clean is the same as that prescribed for the leper in Leviticus 14:4-7. Further regulations are found in Negâim, chs. 12, 13.

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. Joshua 24:13.