Lev. 14 Rites and sacrifices for the cleansing of a leper; the leprosy being healed, and judged so by the priest, who, going without the camp, must take two living clean birds, &c. The manner of it: one to be slain, the other to be let loose, Lev. 14:1–9.

Not into the priest’s house, but to some place without the camp or city, Lev. 13:46, which the priest shall appoint.

To wit, by God; for God alone did heal or cleanse him really, the priest only ministerially and declaratively, as ministers are said to remit sins, though it be granted that none can truly and properly forgive sins but God, Mark 2:7.

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.

To wit, 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; and if it had been a sacrifice, that might be killed by another, so long as the sprinkling of the…

Seven times, to signify his perfect cleansing and restoration to all his former privileges. Compare Lev. 4:17. Into the open field, the place of its former abode, signifying the taking off that restraint which was laid upon the leper, and the liberty which the leper now had to return to his former…

Shave off all his hair; partly, to discover his perfect soundness; partly, to preserve him from relapse through any seeds or relics of it which might remain in his hair, or in his clothes; and partly, to teach him to put off his old lusts, and become a new man.

He shall shave all his hair, which began to grow again since it was first shaved, and now for more caution is shaved again.

Oil is added here as a fit sign of God’s grace and mercy, and of the leper’s healing. Log, a measure for liquid things containing six eggshells-full.

The healing is ascribed to God, Lev. 14:13, but the ceremonial cleansing or making of him clean and fit for society was an act of the priest using the rites which God had prescribed, whereby the sinner was cleansed.

For a trespass-offering, to teach them that sin was the cause of leprosy and of all diseases, and that these ceremonial observations had a further meaning, even to make them sensible of their spiritual diseases, their sins, and to fly to God in Christ for the cure of them.

In the holy place, to wit, in the court of the tabernacle. See Lev. 1:11, Lev. 7:7. It is most holy; both of them are equally holy, and therefore to be offered in the same place.

To signify that he was now free to hear God’s word in the appointed places, from which he was before excluded, and to touch any person or tiring without defiling it, and to go whither he pleased.

As the blood signified Christ’s blood, by which men obtain remission of sins; so the oil noted the graces of the Spirit, by which they are regenerated and renewed.

i.e. Before the second veil which covered the holy of holies, where God is oft said to dwell, and to be present in a peculiar manner.

i.e. Upon the place of that blood, as it is expressed Lev. 14:28, or where that blood was put, Lev. 14:14; or, over and besides the blood, &c. i.e. as the blood was put in those places, so shall the oil be.

That they empty the house, i.e. the possessors of the house. It is observable here, that neither the people nor the household stuff were polluted till the leprosy was discovered and declared by the priest, to show what great difference God makes between sins of ignorance, and sins against knowledge…

In the walls of the house this was an extraordinary judgment of God peculiar to this people, either as a punishment of their sins, which were much more sinful and inexcusable than the sins of other nations; or as a special mean and help to repentance, which God afforded to them above other people;…

Where they used to cast dirt and filthy things.

The mortar or other rubbish.

To teach; to direct the priest when to pronounce a person or house clean or unclean. So it was not left to the priest’s power or will, but they were tied to plain rules, such as the people might discern no less than the priest.