Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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The remainders of sin and corruption in our mortal bodies are like this leprosy in the house; after all our pains in scraping and plastering, we shall never be quite clear of it, till the earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved and taken down; when we are dead we shall be free from sin, and not till then, Ro 6:7.
45 And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber
thereof, and all the mortar of the house; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place.
46 Moreover, he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut
up shall be unclean until the even.
47 And he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes; and he that
eateth in the house shall wash his clothes.
48 And if the priest shall come in, and look upon it, and, behold, the
plague hath not spread in the house, after the house was plastered; then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed.
49 And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood,
and scarlet, and hyssop:
If the taking out the infected stones cured the house, and the leprosy did not spread any further, then the house must be cleansed; not only aired, that it might be healthful, but purified from the ceremonial pollution, that it might be fit to be the habitation of an Israelite. The ceremony of its cleansing was much the same with that of cleansing a leprous person, Le 14:49, &c. This intimated that the house was smitten for the man's sake (as bishop Patrick expresses it), and he was to look upon himself as preserved by divine mercy. The houses of Israelites are said to be dedicated (De 20:5), for they were a holy nation, and therefore they ought to keep their houses pure from all ceremonial pollutions, that they might be fit for the service of that God to whom they were devoted. And the same care should we take to reform whatever is amiss in our families, that we and our houses may serve the Lord; see Ge 35:2. Some have thought the leprosy in the house was typical of the idolatry of the Jewish church, which did strangely cleave to it; for, though some of