33 And Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 34 When ye come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put a leprous plague in a house of the land of your possession, 35 then he whose house it is shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seemeth to me like a plague in the house; 36 and the priest shall command that they empty the house before the priest go into it to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean; and afterwards the priest shall go in to see the house. 37 And when he looketh on the plague, and behold, the plague is in the walls of the house, greenish or reddish hollows, and their look is deeper than the surface of the wall, 38 then the priest shall go out of the house to the entrance of the house, and shut up the house seven days. 39 And the priest shall come again the seventh day, and when he looketh, and behold, the plague hath spread in the walls of the house, 40 then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is, and they shall cast them out of the city, in an unclean place. 41 And he shall cause the house to be scraped within round about, and they shall pour out the mortar that they have scraped off, out of the city in an unclean place. 42 And they shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones; and they shall take other mortar, and shall plaster the house. 43 And if the plague come again, and break out in the house, after he hath taken away the stones, and after he hath scraped the house, and after it is plastered, 44 then the priest shall come, and when he looketh, and behold, the plague hath spread in the house, it is a corroding leprosy in the house: it is unclean. 45 And they shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house, and shall carry them forth out of the city to an unclean place. 46 And he that goeth into the house as long as it is shut up shall be unclean until the even. 47 And he that sleepeth in the house shall wash his garments, and he that eateth in the house shall wash his garments. 48 But if the priest shall come in and look, and behold, the plague hath not spread in the house, after the house hath been plastered, the priest shall pronounce the house clean; for the plague is healed. 49 And he shall take, to purge the house from the defilement, two birds, and cedar-wood, and scarlet, and hyssop; 50 and he shall kill one bird in an earthen vessel over running water; 51 and he shall take the cedar-wood and the hyssop and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the bird that was killed, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times; 52 and he shall purge the house from the defilement with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar-wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet; 53 and he shall let the living bird loose out of the city into the open field; and he shall make atonement for the house, and it is clean.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Leviticus 14:33-53
Commentary on Leviticus 14:33-53
(Read Leviticus 14:33-53)
The leprosy in a house is unaccountable to us, as well as the leprosy in a garment; but now sin, where that reigns in a house, is a plague there, as it is in a heart. Masters of families should be aware, and afraid of the first appearance of sin in their families, and put it away, whatever it is. If the leprosy is got into the house, the infected part must be taken out. If it remain in the house, the whole must be pulled down. The owner had better be without a dwelling, than live in one that was infected. The leprosy of sin ruins families and churches. Thus sin is so interwoven with the human body, that it must be taken down by death.