Leviticus 14:36

36 "The priest shall then command that they empty the house before the priest goes in to look at the mark, so that everything in the house need not become unclean; and afterward * the priest shall go in to look at the house.

Leviticus 14:36 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 14:36

Then the priest shall command that they empty the house
Clear it of all persons and things; everybody was obliged to go out of it; and all the furniture of it, all the household goods in it, were to be removed from it: before the priest go [into it] to see the plague, that all that [is] in
the house be not made clean;
as would be the case should the priest view it, and pronounce it unclean before the removal of them; agreeably to which is the Jewish tradition ^F11, before a priest comes to see the plague, not anything in the house is defiled; but after he is come to see it, even bundles of sticks, and of reeds, are defiled, which are not reckoned under the uncleanness to be removed: so that this was a kindness to the owner of the house, that his loss might not be so great as it otherwise would be, if he did not take care to get his goods out previous to the inspection of the priest: and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house;
to examine it, whether the signs of leprosy are in it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 Misn. Nagaim, c. 12. sect. 5.

Leviticus 14:36 In-Context

34 "When you enter the land of Canaan, which I give you for a possession, and I put a mark of leprosy on a house in the land of your possession,

35 then the one who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, 'Something like a mark of leprosy has become visible to me in the house.'

36 "The priest shall then command that they empty the house before the priest goes in to look at the mark, so that everything in the house need not become unclean; and afterward the priest shall go in to look at the house.

37 "So he shall look at the mark, and if the mark on the walls of the house has greenish or reddish depressions and appears deeper than the surface,

38 then the priest shall come out of the house, to the doorway, and quarantine the house for seven days.