33 God spoke to Moses and Aaron, 34 "When you enter the land of Canaan, which I'm giving to you as a possession, and I put a serious fungus in a house in the land of your possession, 35 the householder is to go and tell the priest, 'I have some kind of fungus in my house.' 36 The priest is to order the house vacated until he can come to examine the fungus, so that nothing in the house is declared unclean. 37 When the priest comes and examines the house, if the fungus on the walls of the house has greenish or rusty swelling that appears to go deeper than the surface of the wall, 38 the priest is to walk out the door and shut the house up for seven days. 39 On the seventh day he is to come back and conduct another examination; if the fungus has spread in the walls of the house, 40 he is to order that the stones affected by the fungus be torn out and thrown in a garbage dump outside the city. 41 He is to make sure the entire inside of the house is scraped and the plaster that is removed be taken away to the garbage dump outside the city. 42 Then he is to replace the stones and replaster the house. 43 "If the fungus breaks out again in the house after the stones have been torn out and the house has been scraped and plastered, 44 the priest is to come and conduct an examination; if the fungus has spread, it is a malignant fungus. The house is unclean. 45 The house has to be demolished - its stones, wood, and plaster are to be removed to the garbage dump outside the city. 46 Anyone who enters the house while it is closed up is unclean until evening. 47 Anyone who sleeps or eats in the house must wash his clothes. 48 "But if when the priest comes and conducts his examination, he finds that the fungus has not spread after the house has been replastered, the priest is to declare that the house is clean; the fungus is cured. 49 He then is to purify the house by taking two birds, some cedar wood, scarlet thread, and hyssop. 50 He will slaughter one bird over fresh water in a clay pot. 51 Then he will take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet thread, and the living bird, dip them in the blood of the killed bird and the fresh water and sprinkle the house seven times, 52 cleansing the house with the blood of the bird, the fresh water, the living bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet thread. 53 Last of all, he will let the living bird loose outside the city in the open field. He has made atonement for the house; the house 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.