Numbers 5:2

2. Every leper A discussion of leprosy may be found in Leviticus 13:0. It was considered a punishment from God. The very term “leper,” in Hebrew etymology, signifies one “struck.” The Greek poet AEschylus ( Choeph., 271) portrays it as the scourge of an offended deity. It is the opinion of scientific men that the leprosy, the diagnosis of which is given in Leviticus xiii and xiv, includes all severe diseases spreading on the surface of the body in the way described, as syphilis, elephantiasis, and cancer. Leprosy proper, common in Egypt and Syria, begins imperceptibly with a few reddish, painless spots, gradually increasing for some years, and becoming more manifest. The spots become large, covering the entire skin; sometimes raised, though flat. The upper part of the nose swells and softens, the nostrils distend, the under jaw swells, the eyebrows are elevated, the ears grow thick, the ends of the fingers and toes swell, the nails grow scaly, the joints of the feet and hands separate, and the palms and soles become ulcerated. This kind is supposed by some not to be infectious. In Egypt and Palestine it was endemic in a mild form.

Every one that hath an issue See notes on Leviticus 15:2-33, where it is called a running issue. The separation enjoined was admirably adapted to prevent contagion of every kind, and to repress licentious indulgences.

Defiled by the dead The Hebrew has נפשׁ , nephesh; and the Greek ψυχη , psyche, spirit or soul, instead of the usual word for dead. In Leviticus 21:11, and Numbers 6:6, the Hebrew adds מת , meth, dead. This was a ceremonial, and not a physical or contagious, defilement. Actual touch was not necessary for defilement, but touching a grave, bearing the dead, or entering a tent or house where there was a corpse. Note, Numbers 19:11-18. The reason of the defilement attributed to a dead body is not assigned. It may be on account of its speedy decomposition in a hot climate.