Leviticus 14:3 - Exposition

The priest. The agent is stilt the priest, not the physician. The priest shall go forth out of the camp. "May we not (as Hesychius suggests) see a figure here of the compassion of our Great High Priest, who has gone forth out of heaven itself, the camp of angel hosts, and has come down to earth, not only to examine but to heal tile moral leprosy of sin, 'to seek and to save the lost' ( Luke 19:10 ), and who carefully examines and scrutinizes all the secrets of all hearts ( Hebrews 4:12 )? And he was exempt from all contagion of sin while he lived and moved among sinners ( Matthew 9:11 ; Luke 15:1 ), and was 'holy, harmless, and undefiled' ( Hebrews 7:26 )" (Wordsworth). And the priest shall look . In later times it was ordered that the examination was not to take place on the sabbath, nor in the early morning, nor in the late afternoon, nor inside a house, nor on a cloudy day, nor in the glare of midday, and that the priest must have good eyesight, and only determine one case at a time; nor was he allowed to pronounce judgment on his own kindred. And, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper. The plague of leprosy is healed before the ceremony of purification begins, but the leper is not pronounced clean until he has been sprinkled with the blood and water ( Leviticus 14:7 ).