Leviticus 13:31, commentary and pictures

This instruction belongs to the laws of uncleanness and leprosy given through Moses, the laws of cleanliness and sanitation. It directs the priest to look upon the plague of the scall and, if it is not in sight deeper than the skin and there is no black hair in it, to shut up the one who has the plague seven days. It belongs to the law of cleansing in Leviticus 12-15, under which an object had to be made visibly clean before it could receive the sanctuary cleansing with blood, thus separating the removal of physical uncleanness from the deeper cleansing for moral defilement.

The leprosy here is a fitting type and figure of sin, as a moral disease and mortal sin. Like leprosy, sin is universally prevalent, infectious, inward as well as outward, does not heal by itself, spreads its pollution to others through the sinner's influence, and is incurable by human means. Healing from this leprosy-like condition of sin comes through Christ, whose power to heal literal leprosy answers this law about loathsome leprosy.

The instruction is part of admirable sanitary precautions and guidance concerning contagious diseases and diseases that leave infectious germs in buildings, even though God is the healer. The sanitary laws promulgated by Moses to which it belongs still stand at the head of sanitary law, and the value of observing them is shown by modern results when well-understood sanitary laws are rigidly enforced to prevent disease and death, which proves divine inspiration guided Moses. The loathsome leprosy it describes is still as prevalent in the Holy Land as in scriptural days, bearing witness to the truth of Scripture. It belongs to a cleansing work for God's people that calls for continued faithfulness to cleansing instruction, applied as a lesson not to turn away from health reform and other cleansing truths.