Leviticus 16

Leviticus 16:1

It is a leprosy - It is a sign that such baldness came not from age, or any accident, but from the leprosy.

Leviticus 16:4

His clothes shall be rent - In the upper and fore parts, which were most visible. This was done partly as a token of sorrow, because though this was not a sin, yet it was an effect of sin, and a sore punishment, whereby he was cut off both from converse with men, and from the enjoyment of God in his ordinances; partly as a warning to others to keep at a due distance from him wheresoever he came. And his head bare - Another sign of mourning. God would have men though not overwhelmed with, yet deeply sensible of his judgments. A covering on his upper lip - Partly as another badge of his sorrow and shame, and partly for the preservation of others from his breath or touch. Unclean, unclean - As begging the pity and prayers of others, and confessing his own infirmity, and cautioning those who came near him, to keep at a distance from him.

Leviticus 16:5

He shall dwell alone - Partly for his humiliation; partly to prevent the infection of others; and partly to shew the danger of converse with spiritual lepers, or notorious sinners.

Leviticus 16:6

Leprosy in garments and houses is unknown in these times and places, which is not strange, there being some diseases peculiar to some ages and countries. And that such a thing was among the Jews, cannot reasonably be doubted; for, if Moses had been a deceiver, a man of his wisdom, would not have exposed himself to the contempt of his people by giving laws about that which their experience shewed to be but a fiction.

Leviticus 16:7

In the warp or woof - A learned man renders it in the outside, or in the inside of it. If the signification of these words be doubtful now, as some of those of the living creatures and precious stones are confessed to be, it is not material to us, this law being abolished; it sufficeth that the Jews understood these things by frequent experience.

Leviticus 16:14

If it have not changed its colour - If washing doth not take away that vicious colour, and restore it to its own native colour.

Leviticus 16:21

He shall be brought to the priest - Not into the priest’s house, but to some place without the camp or city, which the priest shall appoint.

Leviticus 16:22

Healed by God - For God alone did heal or cleanse him really, the priest only declaratively.

Leviticus 16:23

Two birds - The one to represent Christ as dying for his sins, the other to represent him as rising again for his purification or justification. Clean - Allowed for food and for sacrifice. Cedar - wood - A stick of cedar, to which the hyssop and one of the birds was tied by the scarlet thread. Cedar seems to be chosen, to note that the leper was now freed from that corruption which his leprosy had brought upon him, that kind of wood being in a manner incorruptible. Scarlet - A thread of wool of a scarlet colour, to represent both the leper’s sinfulness, and the blood of Christ, and the happy change of the leper’s colour and complexion, which before was wan and loathsome, now sprightly and beautiful. Hyssop - The fragrant smell of which, signified the cure of the leper’s ill scent.

Leviticus 16:24

Killed - By some other man. The priest did not kill it himself, because it was not properly a sacrifice, as being killed without the camp, and not in that place to which all sacrifices were confined. In an earthen - vessel - That is, over running water put in an earthen - vessel - Thus the blood of the bird and the water were mixed together, partly for the conveniency of sprinkling, and partly to signify Christ, who came by water and blood, 1 John 5:6. The running water, that is, spring or river water by its liveliness and motion did fitly signify the restoring of liveliness to the leper, who was in a manner dead before.

Leviticus 16:26

Into the open field - The place of its former abode, signifying the taking off that restraint which was laid upon the leper.

Leviticus 16:27

All his hair - Partly to discover his perfect soundness; partly to preserve him from a relapse through any relicks of it which might remain in his hair or in his clothes. Out of his tent - Out of his former habitation, in some separate place, lest some of his leprosy yet lurking in him should break forth to the infection of his family.

Leviticus 16:28

All his hair - Which began to grow again, and now for more caution is shaved again.

Leviticus 16:29

Oil is added as a fit sign of God’s grace and mercy, and of the leper’s healing. A log is a measure containing six egg - shells full.

Leviticus 16:30

Maketh him clean - The healing is ascribed to God, Leviticus 14:13, but the ceremonial cleansing was an act of the priest using the rites which God had prescribed.

Leviticus 16:31

A trespass - offering - To teach them, that sin was the cause of leprosy, and of all diseases, and that these ceremonial observations had a farther meaning, to make them sensible of their spiritual diseases, that they might fly to God in Christ for the cure of them.

Leviticus 16:33

The priest shall put it - To signify, that he was now free to hear God’s word in the appointed places, and to touch any person or thing without defiling it, and to go whither he pleased.

Leviticus 16:34

The oil - As the blood signified Christ’s blood by which men obtained remission of sins, so the oil noted the graces of the spirit by which they are renewed.