Leviticus 13:34, commentary and pictures

Leviticus 13:34 belongs to the laws in Leviticus 12-15, and specifically to Leviticus 13, regulating uncleanness and leprosy and their treatment and cleansing. The verse describes the priest examining the scall on the seventh day, and if it has not spread in the skin nor appears deeper than the skin, pronouncing the person clean, after which the person washes his clothes and is clean. Within that system, visible uncleanness had to be removed so that a person or object could be recognized as clean before the sanctuary's later cleansing with blood. The verse belongs to sanitary instructions concerning leprosy that address contagious diseases and diseases that leave infectious germs in buildings. The verse belongs to the laws of sanitation promulgated by Moses that still stand at the head of sanitary law, and their continued superiority proves divine inspiration guided Moses.

Leprosy, a horrible disease in its utmost loathsomeness, serves as a fitting type, picture, and representation of sin as a terrible moral disease and mortal sin. As shown by leprosy, sin is incurable by human means and never gets well of itself, and is infectious, destructive, and rooted within, polluting the source of life as well as disgracing the outward person. Like leprosy, sin is contagious: the sinner contaminates the very atmosphere, introduces pollution where all before was comparative purity, and by his society leads others to sin, so such influence is more to be feared than the infection of the leper.

The cleansing of the disease prefigures the removal of sin, while the humility required to receive cleansing points to the death of pride and the putting off of the old self. The disease was as prevalent in Moses' day as in the present Holy Land, so its continuance bears witness to scriptural truth, while Jesus Christ made the same leprosy a demonstration of his power to heal.