Erpenius and many of the Jewish Commentators such as R. Solomon and Aben-Ezra who give the same account of XXI Lev. 10. where the same thing is required of the High-Priest And the time of their letting their Hair grow on such occasions they determine by the Law of the Nazarites who were not to cut their Hair all the time of their Vow of Separation which the Jews say was at least XXX days VI Numb 5. Therefore the Priests were not to let their Hair grow so long if they did they were uncapable of officiating Only they make this difference between the common Priests and the High-Priest that this Law did not bind the Priests at all times but only in their Course of Ministration but the High-Priest whose Presence was always necessary in the Sanctuary might never let his Hair grow but was bound every Week to have it cut even on the Eve of the Sabbath See Selden L. II. de Success in Pontiff cap. 6. But the foundation of all this is not very strong for it relies chiefly on the use of the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that place of Numbers VI. 5. where it signifies Hair from whence they conclude the Verb here may have the same Notion and signifie the growth of Hair But this is not the usual signification of it in Scripture where it commonly imports the rejection of something as of good Counsel I Prov. 25. of Reproof or Instruction XIII Prov. 18. XV. 32. And being joyned with the Head plainly signifies the uncovering it See V Numb 18. And therefore so the LXX understand it here as if they were forbidden to put off their Bonnets But that they always did as soon as they had performed their Sacred Office in the Sanctuary and therefore it may be meant of making their Heads bare by shaving them or bald by pulling off the Hair as the manner was in Mourning XV Isa 2. XLI Jer. 5. XLVIII 37. and many other places And in this the Priests among the Jews directly opposed those among the Egyptians who shaved their Heads as appears by what Minutius Faelix and Lampridius in the Life of Commodus say concerning the Priests of Isis And Herodotus also in his Euterpe whose words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In other places the Priests of the Gods nourish their hair but in Egypt they are shaved Neither rend your Clothes Which was another Rite of Mourning not only among the Jews but among all People in ancient Times especially in the Eastern Countries as every one knows that hath read any of their Authors See I Job 20. And it was used on many other occasions among the Jews as well as in their Funerals particularly when any Man blasphemed XIV Numb 6. 2 Kings XIX 1. when any ill Tidings came which put them into a Passion 2 Kings V. 7. or any Misfortune befel them XLIV Gen. 13. XI Judg. 35. But was thought so unseemly in a Priest especially when he ministred that the Jews say they whose Garments were rent by accident were as uncapable of ministring as they who rent them themselves in Mourning The reason of this Precept was as R. Levi of Barcelona well observes Praecept CLV that it being not allowed in those Countries for Mourners to come into the Presence of their Kings as appears by the History of Esther much less was it seemly for any that attended upon the Divine Majesty to come into his House in such a Habit. Lest ye die As Nadab and Abihu did For after such a Monition as this they had highly dishonoured God if they had appeared in his Sanctuary in such an indecent manner And wrath come upon the people For want of Priests to make atonement for them when they offended But let your brethren the whole house of Israel bewail the burning which the LORD hath kindled He doth not prohibit the rest of the People who were not Priests to mourn for them but rather requires it of them all that they might be sensible of their loss and of the the sin which was the cause of it And it is likely the People bewailed them by rending their Clothes and baring their Heads and putting Ashes upon them or some such Rites then in use among them Ver. 7. Verse 7 And ye shall not go out from the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation For it is supposed the seven days of their Consecration were not yet quite ended VIII 35. or they had begun some other Ministration in the Sanctuary and therefore were not to stir out of the Court of it till it was sanctified And the Hebrews think this Law did not only bind Aaron and his Sons at this time but their Posterity for ever that if they heard of the death of any of their Kindred when they were ministring in the Sanctuary they should not stir from their Duty For that would have been to show a greater affection to a dead Friend than to the living God This appears to be true by the like command to this and in the same words laid particularly upon the High-Priests XXI 12. For the anointing of the LORD is upon you You are devoted and consecrated by a Solemn Unction VIII 10 c. to the Service of God which must not be omitted out of respect to any Person whatsoever For in this Precept as R. Levi Barcelonita observes Praecept CLVII the Dignity and Majesty of the Divine Worship was consulted which if his Ministers had deserted on such occasions for a moment would have been brought into contempt For it would have been a declaration that there was something in the World more to be regarded than God's Service And therefore the punishment of Death is threatned in the foregoing words to those who were guilty of such an offence And they did according to the word of Moses Staid in the Tabernacle without any of the usual Tokens of Mourning Wherein they performed an eminent piece of Obedience to God whose commandment suppressed those natural Affections which are very hard to be kept in subjection Ver. 8. Verse 8 And the LORD spake unto Aaron saying It may be thought that the LORD was so pleased with his Obedience that he himself now spake unto Aaron whereas hitherto he had spoken to him by Moses Ver. 9. Verse 9 Do not drink wine nor strong drink thou nor thy sons with thee By Wine every one knows is meant that Liquor which is pressed out of Grapes And by Schechar which we translate strong Drink is meant such Liquors as were made in imitation of Wine of Dates or Figs and many other sorts of Fruits also that which was made of Honey which we call Mede and Metheglin There are many sorts of such Liquors mentioned by Pliny in his Natural History Lib. XIV cap. 16. which he calls Vina factitia When ye go into the Tabernacle of the Congregation To perform your Ministry At other times they might drink Wine and if we may believe the Jews they did not
spreading of them after they were first discovered The plague is a fretting leprosie The Hebrew word Mamereth which we translate sretting is very variously rendered by the ancient Interpreters as Bochart hath observed in his Hierozoicon P. I. L. II. cap. 45. where from the Arabick Tongue he thinks it may be best translated an exasperated or irritated Leprosie That is very sharp and pricking which sutes well with our Translation eating into the Garment or Skin till it was consumed Abarbanel translates it painful because this sort of Leprosie in the body of a Man was full of anguish And so this word is used in XXVIII Ezek. 24. where a Thorn is called Mamir and translated by us a grieving Thorn Ver. 52. Verse 52 He shall therefore burn that garment c. It seems this Leprosie could never be got out of the Garment or Skin wherein it was which therefore was ordered to be burnt as never likely to be fit for use Ver. 53 54. Verse 53 54. If it be not spread in the garment c. If the Spot was at a stay and did not proceed further then the Garment as the following Verse directs was to be washed and shut up for seven days in which time it appeared whether the impurity were quite gone or still remained Ver. 55. If the plague hath not changed its colour If washing had not altered that vitious colour but it still continued very red or green And the plague be not spread Or though it be not spread yet it was to be pronounced unclean and adjudged to be burnt It is fret inward Though it did not spread in breadth yet it fretted in depth Whether it be bare within or without In the Hebrew the words are In the baldness of the hinder part or in its forepart which seems to be a manner of speaking taken from v. 42 43. where he treats of bald heads And the meaning is whether it eat into the right side of the Garment which is compared to the forehead or into the wrong side which is compared to the hinder part of the head making it as bare as a bald head is when there is not a hair left For this sort of Leprosie was wont to eat off the nap of the Cloth and make it thread-bare Ver. 56. Verse 56 And if the Priest look and behold the plague be somewhat dark after the washing of it c. If it had changed its colour from very green or red and become duskish or as Abarbanel understands it the Spot was contracted or shrunk up in the washing so that it was gone in part if not in whole then the Priest was to cut out that part of the Garment where the Spot was there being some indication that the whole Garment might not be tainted Ver. 57. Verse 57 If it appear still in the garment c. If after that Spot was cut out the neighbouring parts appeared to have a tincture of a very green or red colour it was to be taken for a demonstration that there was a spreading Leprosie as it here follows in the Garment or Skin which would proceed till it was intirely infected with it Thou shalt burn that wherein the plague is with fire Therefore the Leprosie being incurable there was no other remedy but to destroy the thing wherein it was Ver. 58. Verse 58 And the garment either warp or woof or whatsoever thing of skin it be which thou shalt wash if the plague be departed from them c. Whatsoever after washing had no appearance of such Spots as are before-mentioned v. 49 c. remaining in it there was no further trial to be made of it but being washed a second time it was to be accounted clean i. e. fit for common use Ver. 59. Verse 59 This is the Law of the plague of leprosie in a garment of wollen or linen c. By these Rules the Priests were to judge whether Garments were lawful to be used or no and accordingly to determine as by the Rules in the foregoing part of the Chapter they were to judge and pronounce whether Men and Women were fit to be allowed to keep company with others And when we consider how nice and diligent many Nations were and still are in their washings after any sort of defilement it is no wonder as Conradus Pellicanus here glosses that some Laws of Cleanliness even about their Garments were prescribed to the Jews which admonished them of that inward purgation of their hearts from all impure affections about which they were to be far more solicitous I have forborn to apply what is here said of the Leprosie in this Chapter to the various degrees of Pollutions that are in mens minds because that would have made this Book too large and it is done already by a great number of Commentators both Modern and Ancient particularly among the later by Procopius Gazaeus and Hesychius Presb. Hierosolymorum who sometimes have done it very ingeniously CHAP. XIV Ver. 1. Verse 1 AND the LORD spake unto Moses saying All that is said before concerning the Rules whereby they were to discern the Leprosie from the like Diseases were given unto Aaron as well as unto Moses XIII 1. For Aaron and his Posterity were constituted the Judges of such matters in which they had need to be well studied and versed But the way and manner of cleansing a Leper is delivered only to Moses to be by him given unto Aaron and his Sons who were to depend on him as God's great Minister and their Instructer in all Religious Rites Ver. 2. Verse 2 This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing The manner and means which God hath ordained of purifying a Leper as Maimonides expounds it and restoring him to the Communion of God's People He shall be brought unto the Priest Not to the House of the Priest for he was to go out to the Gate of the Camp as appears by the next Verse and thither the Leper was to be brought to him But these words seem to import the Leper was first to come towards the Camp unto some place which the Priest it is likely appointed and then the Priest having notice of it was to go out and look upon him Ver. 3. Verse 3 And the Priest shall go forth out of the Camp To the place where the Leper was XIII 46. And the Priest shall look Diligently examine in what condition the Leper is by the Rules mentioned in the foregoing Chapter And behold if the plague of leprosie be healed in the leper The Priest no doubt had been informed before he went to make the inspection that there were good grounds to believe the Man was freed from his Leprosie Ver. 4. Verse 4 Then shall the Priest command to take for him c. That some of his Friends or such as he ordered should provide what follows for his Purification Two birds alive that are clean The margin of our Bibles translates it two Sparrows and they
who take the word in this sense have some pretty conceits about it Particularly this That it signifies him who had lately sate alone like a solitary Sparrow on the House top as the Psalmist speaks to be now admitted into the Society of others again But Origen takes these Birds to have been Hens and so Scaliger shows out of Nicander that the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anciently signified Exerc. 230. and the LXX better translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 two little Birds of any sort whatsoever provided they were clean i. e. lawful to be eaten as the Vulgar truly interpret it For to restrain it to Sparrows had been very absurd whether they had been clean Birds or unclean because it had been in vain to say a clean Sparrow when the whole Species was so by the Law and more unaccountable to require a clean Sparrow if all had been unlawful as Bochart rightly observes Lib. I. Hieroz cap. 22. P. II. Grotius takes this to have been the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gift which is mentioned VIII Matth. 4. which was presented by the Leper in the day of his Cleansing rather than those mentioned v. 10. of this Chapter But I can see nothing of the Nature of a Gift or Present in these Birds which were not to be offered at the Altar And cedar-wood and scarlet and hysop Why his Purification was to be made by these things Maimonides saith he could never understand More Nevoch P. III. cap. 47. But Abarbanel adventures to guess at the reason and imagines that these four things the living Birds the Cedar the Scarlet and the Hysop signified the Leper to be cured of the four Evils under which he had laboured in his Flesh his Humors his Colour and Smell which were represented by the four things before-mentioned and were now all become sound and good For the living Birds he thinks were a sign that his dead-flesh was restored to vigor and life again And the Cedar-wood which is not easily corrupted denoted the Putrefaction was cured which the Leprosie had made in the Humors of his Body The Scarlet thread or wooll was an indication of his good Complexion restored to him for this is a bright and grateful colour as the Leprosie was livid and loathsom signifying saith he his Blood was purified which made a lively colour return into his Countenance And lastly the Hysop which in that Country was a very odoriferous Plant signified the nastiness and stench of that Disease was gone Whatsoever any one may judge of this account of these things I think it is very plain that the Jews being possessed with a great detestation of the filthiness of the Leper it was necessary as Pellicanus observes that they should be as strongly perswaded by a great many prolix laborious and publick Ceremonies used for Mens Purification from it that they were fit for their Society again I omit the moral Reasons which are given by R. Levi Barcelonita Praecept CLXXIII for the use of the fore-mentioned things and the mystical significations of these and all the following Rites of Purification which the most learned and ingenious Bochartus hath drawn out in near twenty particulars Hierozoicon P. II. Lib. I. cap. 22. Ver. 5. Verse 5 And the Priest shall command that one of the Birds be killed Not as a Sacrifice for that could be made no where but at the Altar whereas this was without the Camp at a great distance from the Sanctuary and therefore was used only as a Rite of Cleansing See v. 49. In an earthen vessel over running water There seems to be a transposition as is very usual in these words the sense being over an Earthen Vessel that hath running i. e. Spring-water in it For so R. Levi Barcelonita in the place before named describes this Ceremony The Priest takes a new Earthen Vessel and pours into it living water till it be a quarter full which was the measure according to the Tradition of the Scribes Who say also that the best and fattest of the two Birds was killed over the Water and the the Blood pressed out so long that the Water was discoloured with it and then he digged a hole and buried the dead Bird before the Leper Ver. 6. Verse 6 As for the living Bird he shall take it and the cedar-wood and the scarlet-wooll c. He took a stick of Cedar-wood as R. Levi Barcelonita describes this Rite and Maimonides saith the same which was a Cubit long and tying the Bird to it with its Tail uppermost together with a bunch of Hysop of a handful long and as much Scarlet-wooll as weighed a Shekel he then dipt the Birds Tail and Wings with the Hysop and Scarlet-wooll in the Water tinctured with the Blood of the other Bird. Ver. 7. Verse 7 And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from his Leprosie R. Levi will have it that he sprinkled the back of his Hand towards the top of it with this Water and Blood Seven times In token of a perfect Purification See IV. 17. And shall pronounce him clean So as to let him come into the Camp from whence he had been excluded as in after times into the City And shall let the living Bird loose into the open field The manner of doing it as the same R. Levi relates was the Priest going into the City threw the Bird over the Walls towards the Wilderness The intention of which was to show that the Leper was restored to a free Conversation with all his Neighbours as the Bird was with the rest of its kind See v. 53. Ver. 8. Verse 8 And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes He was to do this and what follows before he could be admitted into the Camp And shave off all his hair and wash himself in water i. e. Wash his whole Body All which contributed to cleanliness And after that he shall come into the Camp But not enter into his own Habitation as appears by the words following And tarry abroad out of his Tent seven days They lived in Tents while they remained in the Wilderness which every Man had apart for himself and for his Family Unto which a Leper was not restored immediately after his Admission into the Camp for fear there should be any undiscerned remainder of his Disease whereby his Wife and Children might be endangered For which reason he might not lye with his Wife till seven days were over Ver. 9. Verse 9 But on the seventh day he shall shave all his hair off his head c. This may be thought to have been the time appointed for the shaving mentioned in the foregoing Verse but R. Levi and other Hebrew Doctors understand it of a second shaving at the seven days end that they might be assured nothing of the Leprosie remained Even all his hair he shall shave off Under his Arm-holes and in other places of the Body where it uses to grow as well as the