When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh
Rules are here given, by which a leprosy might be judged of;
which, as a disease, was frequent in Egypt, where the Israelites
had dwelt a long time, and from whence they were just come; and
is doubtless the reason, as learned men have observed, that
several Heathen writers make the cause of their expulsion from
Egypt, as they choose to call it, though wrongly, their being
infected with this distemper; whereas it was the reverse, not
they, but the Egyptians, were incident to it F26.
Moreover, the leprosy here spoken of seems not to be the same
with that disease, or what we now call so, though some have
thought otherwise; it being rather an uncleanness than a disease,
and the business of a priest, and not a physician to attend unto;
and did not arise from natural causes, but was from the immediate
hand of God, and was inflicted on men for their sins, as the
cases of Miriam, Gehazi, and Uzziah show; and who by complying
with the rites and ceremonies hereafter enjoined, their sins were
pardoned, and they were cleansed; so that as their case was
extraordinary and supernatural, their cure and cleansing were as
remarkable: besides, this impurity being in garments and houses,
shows it to be something out of the ordinary way. And this law
concerning it did not extend to all men, only to the Israelites,
and such as were in connection with them, such as proselytes. It
is said F1, all are defiled with the plague (of
leprosy) except an idolater and a proselyte of the gate; and the
commentators say F2, even servants, and little ones
though but a day old; that is, they are polluted with it, and so
come under this law. Now the place where this disorder appears is
"in the skin of the flesh"; that is, where there is a skin, and
that is seen; for there are some places, the Jewish writers
F3 say, are not reckoned the skin of
the flesh, or where that is not seen, and such places are
excepted, and they are these; the inside of the eye, of the ear,
and of the nose: wrinkles in the neck, under the pap, and under
the arm hole; the sole of the foot, the nail, the head and beard:
and this phrase, "in the skin of his flesh", is always
particularly mentioned; and when there appeared in it
a rising, scab, or bright spot;
the scab that is placed between the rising or swelling, and the
bright spot, belongs to them both, and is a kind of an accessory,
or second to each of them: hence the Jews distinguish the scab of
the swelling, and the scab of the bright spot; so that these make
four in all, as they observe F4. And to this agrees what Ben
Gersom on this text remarks; the bright spot is, whose whiteness
is as the snow; the rising or swelling is what is white, as the
pure wool of a lamb of a day old; the scab is what is inferior in
whiteness to the rising, and is as in the degree of the whiteness
of the shell or film of an egg; and this is the order of these
appearances, the most white is the bright spot, after that the
rising, and after that the scab of the bright spot, and after
that the scab of the rising or swelling; and, lo, what is in
whiteness below the whiteness of this (the last) is not the
plague of leprosy:
and it be in the skin of his flesh [like] the plague of
leprosy;
either of the above appearances in the skin, having somewhat in
them similar to the leprosy, or which may justly raise a
suspicion of it, though it is not clear and manifest;
then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest, or unto one
of his
sons the priests;
for, as Jarchi notes, there was no pollution nor purification of
the leprosy, but by the mouth or determination of a priest. And a
good man that was desirous, and made conscience of observing the
laws of God, when he observed anything of the above in him, and
had any suspicion of his case, would of himself go, and show
himself to the priest; but if a man did not do this, and any of
his neighbours observed the appearances on him, brought him to
the priest whether he would or not, according to the text,
he shall be brought:
that is, as Aben Ezra explains it, whether with or without his
will; for he that sees in him one of the signs, shall oblige him
to come to the priest; and who observes, that by Aaron the priest
is meant, the priest anointed in his room; and by his sons the
priests, the common priests, who are found without the sanctuary;
such as the priests of Anathoth, but who were not of those that
were rejected.
F26 Est elephas morbus-----gignitur Aegypto. Lucret. l. 6. ver. 1112.
F1 Misn. Negaim, c. 3. sect. 1.
F2 Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.
F3 Misn. Negaim. c. 6. sect. 8. & Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.
F4 Misn. ib. c. 1. sect. 1.
