Leviticus 14:4
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| Overview - Leviticus 14 | |
| 1 | The rites and sacrifices in cleansing the leper. |
| 33 | The signs of leprosy in a house. |
| 48 | The cleansing of that house. |
 | |
Leviticus 14:4 (King James Version)
Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:
- two birds
- or, sparrows.
- The word {tzippor,} from the Arabic {zaphara,} to fly, is used in the Scriptures to denote birds of every species, particularly small birds. But it is often used in a more restricted sense, as the Hebrew writers assert, to signify the sparrow. Aquinas says the same; and Jerome renders it here the sparrow. So the Greek [strouthia,] in Matthew and Luke, which signifies a sparrow, is rendered by the Syriac translator {tzipparin}, the same as the Hebrew {tzipporim}. Nor is it peculiar to the Hebrews to give the same name to the sparrow and to fowls of the largest size; for Nicander calls the hen [strouthos katoikados,] the domestic sparrow, and both Plautus and Ausonius call the ostrich, {passer marinus,} "the marine sparrow." It is evident, however, that the word in this passage signifies birds in general; for if the sparrow was a clean bird, there was no necessity for commanding a clean one to be taken, since every one of the species was ceremonially clean; but if it was unclean, then it could not be called clean.
- 1:14 5:7 12:8
- cedar
- Leviticus 14:6 Leviticus 14:49-52 ; Numbers 19:6
- scarlet
- Hebrews 9:19
- hyssop
- Exodus 12:22 ; Numbers 19:18 ; Psalms 51:7