Then the priest shall consider
Look wistly upon it, and well weigh the matter in his own mind,
that he may make a true judgment and pronounce a right sentence:
and, behold, [if] the leprosy have covered all his
flesh;
from head to foot, so that no quick, raw, or sound flesh appear
in him:
he shall pronounce [him] clean [that hath] the
plague;
not clean from a leprosy he is covered with; but that he is free
from pollution by it, and under no obligation to bring his
offering, or to perform, or have performed on him any of the
rites and ceremonies used in cleansing of the leper:
it is all turned white;
his skin and flesh with white bright spots, scabs and swellings,
and no raw and red flesh appears:
he [is] clean;
in a ceremonial sense: this may seem strange, that one that had a
bright spot, or a white swelling, or a scab that spreads, a
single one of these, or here and there one, should be unclean,
and yet, if covered over with them, should be clean; the reason
in nature is, because this shows a good healthful inward
constitution, which throws out all its ill humours externally,
whereby health is preserved; as we see in persons that have the
measles or smallpox, or such like distempers, if they stick in
the skin, and only here and there one rises up in a tumour, and
to an head, it is a bad sign; but if they come out kindly and
well, though they cover the whole body, things are very
promising: the mystical or spiritual meaning of this is, that
when a man sees himself to be a sinful creature, all over covered
with sin, and no part free, and disclaims all righteousness of
his own to justify him before God, but wholly trusts to, and
depends upon the grace of God for salvation, and the
righteousness of Christ for his acceptance with God; he becomes
clean through the grace of God and the blood and righteousness of
Christ.
