Leviticus 13:53, commentary and pictures

The verse is part of the law regulating leprosy and uncleanness, in which the priest examines a plague in a garment, in its warp or woof, or in anything of skin or leather, and finds that it has not spread. In a piece of cloth the warp is the threads running lengthwise, the woof or filling is the threads running crosswise, and the weft is the woven piece of cloth itself, from which garments or robes by any name are made. The chapter belongs to sanitary instruction about leprosy and other contagious diseases that can leave contagious or infectious germs in buildings and materials. The verse belongs to the law of cleansing in which an object had to be visibly clean before its cleansing with blood.

An infected garment was treated seriously, and if the plague was deep-seated and could not be removed by washing, the garment was to be burned. Leprosy in the verse is a fitting type and prefigure of sin as a dreadful disease. As shown by the law of leprosy, sin is a spreading disease that cannot be cured by human means and pollutes the inner life as well as the outward person, and cleansing from it comes through Christ. As shown by the laws of leprosy, sin is a moral disease that does not heal by itself and spreads its influence to others, contaminating those around the sinner.

Robes, apparel, garments, and linen are used in Scripture as figures of character and righteousness. As one of the ancient cleansing laws for identifying uncleanness and keeping clean, the verse teaches Christians not to abandon health reform and other cleansing truths. The danger from the garment shows that Christians who disregard divine directions for dress misrepresent God and spread pride and vanity among other believers. The need for healing from the disease prefigured here calls for the death of pride and the old self, for salvation humbles people and conversion means putting off the old person and putting on the new.