Commentaria in Leviticum
Note: For paleness the Hebrew and the Septuagint have greenish
39 and 40. And returning on the seventh day, etc., if he find that the leprosy is spread, he shall command the stones to be taken out. It is here commanded that the stones of the leprous house infected with leprosy be taken out, and new ones put in their place, and that the house be scraped and covered with fresh plaster: if after this the leprosy is seen to have returned, the whole house is commanded to be destroyed, and the stones and timbers cast outside the town; but if the leprosy return not, the house is commanded, verse 48, to be purified.
Tropologically, the vicious are to be cast out of the congregation and the upright substituted; if these too are infected, the whole congregation is to be cut off and overthrown.
48. But if the priest going in shall see that the leprosy (lying hidden within) is not spread (has not extended itself outwardly, and therefore neither appears nor is truly leprosy), he shall purify it. The same rite of purification is prescribed here for the leprosy of a house which was prescribed for the leprosy of man, verse 4 and following.
52. And he shall purify it as well with the living sparrow—namely using the living sparrow and the sprinkler for the expiation, as was said at verse 6.
54. This is the law of all leprosy (of every leprosy) and stroke (in Hebrew netek, that is, of breaking; in the Septuagint, of convulsion—whether the leprosy has crept in by a stroke or a convulsion), and of the scar—when, namely, leprosy has grown in the scar of an ulcer or wound, as was said in chapter xiii, verse 18: for from there our Interpreter here repeats and supplies what the Hebrew here passes over in silence and leaves to be understood (1).
Chapter 15. Synopsis of the chapter
Described are the uncleanness and purification: first, of a man with an issue of seed; secondly, verse 16, of a man lying with a woman; thirdly, verse 19, of a menstruous woman; fourthly, verse 25, of a woman with an issue of blood.
1. And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: 2. Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: The man that hath an issue of seed shall be unclean. 3. And then shall he be judged subject to this vice, when at every moment the foul humour cleaveth to his flesh, and groweth together. 4. Every bed on which he sleepeth shall be unclean, and every place where he sitteth. 5. If any man touch his bed, he shall wash his garments: and himself being washed with water, shall be unclean until evening. 6. If he sit where he had sitten, he also shall wash his garments; and being washed with water shall be unclean until evening. 7. He that toucheth his flesh shall wash his garments: and himself being washed with water shall be unclean until evening. 8. If such a man cast his spittle on him that is clean, he shall wash his garments; and being washed with water shall be unclean until evening. 9. The saddle on which he sitteth shall be unclean: 10. And whatsoever was under him that hath the issue of seed, shall be polluted until evening. He that carrieth any of these things shall wash his garments: and himself being washed with water shall be unclean until evening. 11. Every one whom he that is such toucheth, not having first washed his hands, shall wash his garments; and being washed with water shall be unclean until evening. 12. The earthen vessel that he toucheth shall be broken: but the wooden vessel shall be washed with water. 13. If he that hath such an issue be healed, he shall number seven days after his cleansing, and having washed his garments and his whole body in living waters, shall be clean. 14. And on the eighth day he shall take two turtles, or two young pigeons, and shall come in the sight of the Lord, to the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, and shall give them to the priest: 15. Who shall offer one for sin, and the other for a holocaust: and he shall pray for him before the Lord, that he may be cleansed from the issue of his seed. 16. The man from whom the seed of copulation goeth out, shall wash with water his whole body: and he shall be unclean until evening. 17. The garment and the skin that he weareth, he shall wash with water, and it shall be unclean until evening. 18. The woman with whom he copulateth, shall be washed with water, and shall be unclean until evening. 19. The woman, who at the return of the month, hath her issue of blood, shall be separated seven days. 20. Every one that toucheth her shall be unclean until evening: 21. And every thing that she sleepeth on, or that she sitteth on in the days of her separation, shall be defiled. 22. He that toucheth her bed shall wash his garments: and himself being washed with water shall be unclean until evening. 23. Every vessel, on which she sitteth, whosoever toucheth, shall wash his garments; and himself being washed with water shall be defiled until evening. 24. If a man copulate with her in the time of her flowers, he shall be unclean seven days: and every bed on which he shall sleep, shall be defiled. 25. The woman that hath an issue of blood many days out of her ordinary time, or that ceaseth not to flow after the monthly courses, as long as she is subject to this disease, shall be unclean, as if she were in her monthly courses. 26. Every bed, on which she lieth, and every vessel, on which she sitteth, shall be polluted: 27. Whosoever toucheth them, shall wash his garments; and himself being washed with water shall be unclean until evening. 28. If the blood stand and cease to flow, she shall number seven days of her purification: 29. And the eighth day she shall offer for herself to the priest two turtles, or two young pigeons, at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony: 30. And he shall offer one for sin, and the other for a holocaust: and he shall pray for her before the Lord, and for the issue of her uncleanness. 31. You shall teach therefore the children of Israel to keep themselves from uncleanness, that they may not die in their filth, when they shall defile my tabernacle that is among them. 32. This is the law of him that hath the issue of seed, and that is defiled by copulation: 33. And of the woman that is separated by her monthly courses, or that hath a constant issue of blood, and of the man that sleepeth with her.
2. The man that hath an issue of seed shall be unclean. Man—in Hebrew ish ish, that is, every man: for doubling among the Hebrews signifies universal collection, and is distributive for “every.”
That hath an issue of seed—namely a continuing one, by the disease of gonorrhoea (as physicians call it), which arises from weakness of nature and of the retentive faculty, as Galen teaches, De Locis Affectis, book VI; as for the same cause nocturnal pollution happens: for that occurs either by reason of a foul imagination and abundance of seed, or by reason of the weakness just mentioned; especially if one has drunk water, above all hot water, a little before lying down: because this water relaxes, dissolves and weakens the digestive and retentive faculty; wherefore such persons are advised to drink nothing a little before sleep, or rather to drink wine, says Abulensis. Abbot Moses, in the Lives of the Fathers, book VII, chapter i, number 6, said: “The passion of pollution is begotten by these four things: first, by abundance of food and drink; secondly, by too much sleep; thirdly, by idleness and jesting; fourthly, by finery of dress”; for this begets softness both in the body itself and in the imagination, which provokes pollution. When pollution is sin, and when not, see among others our Father Lessius, book IV De Justitia, chapter xiv, learnedly explaining it (1).
4. Every bed on which he sleepeth shall be unclean. Whoever or whatever touched one suffering from an issue of seed was polluted and became unclean.
Note here a rule: In the old law, those persons or things that were unclean in themselves communicated their uncleanness to those who touched them: such were lepers, those with an issue of seed, menstruous women, reptiles; but things that were not unclean in themselves, but only through contact with an unclean thing became unclean, and these did not communicate their uncleanness to those who touched them: as he who had touched a reptile was unclean, yet did not pollute another whom he touched. (1)
Verse 8. The Hebrew is: this shall be his uncleanness in his issue, that is, in these things which are presently named shall consist the uncleanness of the man who suffers from gonorrhoea: if his flesh spit out his issue, that is, if the seed flows of itself; or if the seed is stopped from its flow, so that it cannot flow of itself.
8. If such a man cast his spittle upon him that is clean, he shall wash his garments. “He shall wash” is not he that cast the spittle, but the clean man who received it; for he, as though polluted by this spittle of the man with the issue, must be washed and purified.
9. The saddle on which he sitteth shall be unclean. “Saddle” means a seat or covering. Whence the Septuagint render it the covering of an ass; for formerly in Palestine asses were used instead of horses: hence we read everywhere in Scripture of those setting out: “He saddled his ass.” The Chaldee renders it: every riding-beast on which he has ridden shall be unclean.