Êxodo 4:6-7

6, 7. His hand was leprous The second sign symbolizes Israel: first, fresh and young; then, foul and weak; then, clean and strong . Leprosy is a type of ceremonial defilement . As God bid Moses put his hand in his bosom, so had he bidden Israel go down into Egypt, where they had been sheltered from the Canaanitish influences which would have arrested their national life, but where they had also become contaminated with nature-worship, and where their heathen surroundings made them ceremonially unclean. Moses Mosheh, the drawer or deliverer was to draw them forth, and thrust them into another land, where they should be a nation clean unto Jehovah.