Leviticus 14:48

the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed--The precautions here described show that there is great danger in warm countries from the house leprosy, which was likely to be increased by the smallness and rude architecture of the houses in the early ages of the Israelitish history. As a house could not contract any impurity in the sight of God, the "atonement" which the priest was to make for it must either have a reference to the sins of its occupants or to the ceremonial process appointed for its purification, the very same as that observed for a leprous person. This solemn declaration that it was "clean," as well as the offering made on the occasion, was admirably calculated to make known the fact, to remove apprehension from the public mind, as well as relieve the owner from the aching suspicion of dwelling in an infected house.

Next: Leviticus Chapter 15

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(48) The plague hath not spread.—If at the end of the second week’s quarantine the distemper has not spread, having been checked by the means prescribed in Lev_14:42-43, the priest is to declare it clean, and fit for re-habitation. This is the same criterion adopted in the case of leprous men and garments. (See Lev_13:6; Lev_13:58.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This is the law for all manner of plague of leprosy, and scall. The leprosy in general in the bodies of men, and of that in particular which was on the head and beard, and went by the name of the scall, Lev 13:29. In Lev 14:54 is a recapitulation of the several laws and rules relating to leprosy of all kinds, delivered in this and the preceding chapter.

is a recapitulation of the several laws and rules relating to leprosy of all kinds, delivered in this and the preceding chapter.

Leviticus 14:55

lev 14:55

lev 14:55

lev 14:55And for the leprosy of a garment,.... Of which see Lev 13:47,

and of an house; largely treated of in this chapter, Lev 14:34.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Vers. 48-53. The ceremony of cleansing the house is as similar to that of cleansing the leper as circumstances will permit. In case there is no reappearance of the mischief after the new stones and plastering have been put in, the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed. First, the priest assures himself that the plague is healed, then he pronounces the house clean, and still after that the cleansing is to take place (cf. verses 3, 7, 8). The cleansing is effected by the same ceremony as that of the leper himself, by the two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. The use of this ceremony in the cleansing of a house shows that, in the case of the leper, the symbolical meaning of letting go the living bird out of the city into the open fields cannot be, as has been maintained, the restoration of the cleansed man to his natural movements of liberty in the comp. If a bird"s flight represents the freedom of a man going hither and thither as he will, it certainly does not represent any action that a house could take.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If the priest should find, however, that after the fresh plastering the mole had not appeared again, or spread (to other places), he was to pronounce the house clean, because the evil was cured, and (Lev 14:49-53) to perform the same rite of purification as was prescribed for the restoration of a man, who had been cured of leprosy, to the national community (Lev 14:4-7). The purpose was also the same, namely, to cleanse (חטּא cleanse from sin) and make atonement for the house, i.e., to purify it from the uncleanness of sin which had appeared in the leprosy. For, although it is primarily in the human body that sin manifests itself, it spreads from man to the things which he touches, uses, inhabits, though without our being able to represent this spread as a physical contagion.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

the house was plastered

This can be translated in active form. AT: "the owner put new clay on the stones" (See: Active or Passive)

he will pronounce the house clean

A place that is fit for people to occupy is spoken of as if it were physically clean. (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

priest

clean

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

ואם בא יבא AND IF [THE PRIEST] SHALL COME IN at the end of the second week,

וראה והנה לא פשה AND LOOK UPON IT, AND, BEHOLD, THE PLAGUE HATH NOT SPREAD … [THEN THE PRIEST SHALL PRONOUNCE THE HOUSE CLEAN].— This verse, as shown above, is intended to teach the law regarding the case that it (the plague) has stayed as it was during both the first week and the second week. What shall he do to it? One might think that he shall pronounce it clean just as the verse literally implies: וטהר הכהן את הבית "and the priest shall pronounce the house clean"! It, however, states, "[The priest shall declare the house clean] כי נרפא הנגע if the plague is healed" — Scripture says, as it were, I pronounce clean only that plague which is healed, and only that house is healed which has been scraped and re-plastered and in which the plague has not recurred, but this, in which during two weeks the plague has remained in the same condition, is not yet healed and thus not yet clean, and requires removal of the stones, scraping and re-plastering and yet a third week. And the verse is accordingly to be explained as follows: ואם בא יבא, And if having come once he comes again at the end of the second week and he looks upon it, and, behold, it has not spread, he shall re-plaster it and of course also remove the stones and scrape it — for re-plastering never takes place without removal of the stones and scraping (and Scripture merely states אחרי הטוח for the sake of brevity) — אחרי הטוח את הבית and after the house has been re-plastered, וטהר הכהן את הבית, shall the priest pronounce clean, if the plague has not returned at the end of the third week, כי נרפא הנגע FOR THEN THE PLAGUE IS HEALED. If, however, it has returned at the end of that week it is unnecessary to state the law here since it has already explained regarding a recurring plague that it requires the demolition of the house (cf. Rashi on v. 44).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.