Matthew Henry on Leviticus 13:38-46
We have here,
I. Provisos that neither a freckled skin nor a bald head should be mistaken for a leprosy, Lev 13:38-41. Every deformity must not forthwith be made a ceremonial defilement. Elisha was jeered for his bald head (Kg2 2:23); but it was the children of Bethel, that knew not the judgments of their God, who turned it to his reproach.
II. A particular brand set upon the leprosy if at any time it did appear in a bald head: The plague is in his head, he is utterly unclean, Lev 13:44. If the leprosy of sin have seized the head, if the judgment be corrupted, and wicked principles which countenance and support wicked practices, be embraced, it is an utter uncleanness, from which few are eve…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Leviticus 13:38
If a man . . . or a woman have in the skin of their flesh bright spots--This modification of the leprosy is distinguished by a dull white color, and it is entirely a cutaneous disorder, never injuring the constitution. It is described as not penetrating below the skin of the flesh and as not rendering necessary an exclusion from society. It is evident, then, that this common form of leprosy is not contagious; otherwise Moses would have prescribed as strict a quarantine in this as in the other cases. And hereby we see the great superiority of the Mosaic law (which so accurately distinguished the characteristics of the leprosy and preserved to society the services of those who were laboring un…
Read the whole note in the consoleAdam Clarke on Leviticus 13:33
The scall shall he not shave - Lest the place should be irritated and inflamed, and assume in consequence other appearances besides those of a leprous infection; in which case the priest might not be able to form an accurate judgment.
John Gill on Leviticus 13:39
Then the priest shall look,.... Upon the man or woman that has these spots, and upon the spots themselves, and examine them of what kind they are:
and, behold, if the bright spots in the skin of their flesh be darkish white; their whiteness is not strong, as Jarchi observes; but dusky and obscure, or "contracted" (w); small white spots, not large and spreading:
it is a freckled spot that grows in the skin; a kind of morphew, which the above writer describes as a sort of whiteness which appears in the flesh of a ruddy man:
he is clean; from leprosy; this is observed, lest a person that is freckled and has a morphew should be mistaken for a leprous person; as every man that has some spots,…
