Leviticus 13:14

But when raw flesh appeareth in him, he shall be unclean.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) But when raw flesh appeareth.—Rather, but in the day when sound flesh appeareth again, that is, whenever patches of natural flesh appear intermingled with the white scurf, he forthwith becomes unclean, since this showed that the disease had not exhausted itself. Because it is here said, “But in the day when sound flesh,” &c, and not simply “but when sound flesh,” &c., the administrators of the law in the time of Christ concluded that there were days on which the examination of this distemper was not undertaken: viz., during the seven nuptial days, and the seven days of the great pilgrim festivals of Passover and Tabernacles.

Benson Commentary

Leviticus 13:14. When raw — (Hebrew, when living) flesh appeareth in him — That is, when some of the flesh appears in its sound and natural state, the rest of the skin being white. This was a token of nature’s being unable to throw out all the leprous humour into the skin, and of its working inwardly. Consequently the person in that state was to be pronounced unclean.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:1-17 The plague of leprosy was an uncleanness, rather than a disease. Christ is said to cleanse lepers, not to cure them. Common as the leprosy was among the Hebrews, during and after their residence in Egypt, we have no reason to believe that it was known among them before. Their distressed state and employment in that land must have rendered them liable to disease. But it was a plague often inflicted immediately by the hand of God. Miriam's leprosy, and Gehazi's, and king Uzziah's, were punishments of particular sins; no marvel there was care taken to distinguish it from a common distemper. The judgment of it was referred to the priests. And it was a figure of the moral pollutions of men's minds by sin, which is the leprosy of the soul, defiling to the conscience, and from which Christ alone can cleanse. The priest could only convict the leper, (by the law is the knowledge of sin,) but Christ can cure the sinner, he can take away sin. It is a work of great importance, but of great difficulty, to judge of our spiritual state. We all have cause to suspect ourselves, being conscious of sores and spots; but whether clean or unclean is the question. As there were certain marks by which to know it was leprosy, so there are marks of such as are in the gall of bitterness. The priest must take time in making his judgment. This teaches all, both ministers and people, not to be hasty in censures, nor to judge anything before the time. If some men's sins go before unto judgment, the sins of others follow after, and so do men's good works. If the person suspected were found to be clean, yet he must wash his clothes, because there had been ground for the suspicion. We have need to be washed in the blood of Christ from our spots, though not leprosy spots; for who can say, I am pure from sin?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Raw flesh - See Leviticus 13:10.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9-37. if the rising be white—This BRIGHT WHITE leprosy is the most malignant and inveterate of all the varieties the disease exhibits, and it was marked by the following distinctive signs: A glossy white and spreading scale, upon an elevated base, the elevation depressed in the middle, but without a change of color; the black hair on the patches participating in the whiteness, and the scaly patches themselves perpetually enlarging their boundary. Several of these characteristics, taken separately, belong to other blemishes of the skin as well; so that none of them was to be taken alone, and it was only when the whole of them concurred that the Jewish priest, in his capacity of physician, was to pronounce the disease a malignant leprosy. If it spread over the entire frame without producing any ulceration, it lost its contagious power by degrees; or, in other words, it ran through its course and exhausted itself. In that case, there being no longer any fear of further evil, either to the individual himself or to the community, the patient was declared clean by the priest, while the dry scales were yet upon him, and restored to society. If, on the contrary, the patches ulcerated and quick or fungous flesh sprang up in them, the purulent matter of which, if brought into contact with the skin of other persons, would be taken into the constitution by means of absorbent vessels, the priest was at once to pronounce it an inveterate leprosy. A temporary confinement was them declared to be totally unnecessary, and he was regarded as unclean for life [Dr. Good]. Other skin affections, which had a tendency to terminate in leprosy, though they were not decided symptoms when alone, were: "a boil" (Le 13:18-23); "a hot burning,"—that is, a fiery inflammation or carbuncle (Le 13:24-28); and "a dry scall" (Le 13:29-37), when the leprosy was distinguished by being deeper than the skin and the hair became thin and yellow.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In him, or rather, in it, i.e. in the place where the sign or appearance of leprosy was, when the flesh was partly changed into a whiter colour, and partly kept its natural colour; this variety of colours was an evidence of the leprosy, as one and the same colour continuing was a sign of soundness.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But when raw flesh appeareth in him,.... Between the white spots, scabs, or swellings, or in the midst of them:

he shall be unclean; be pronounced unclean, and be subject to all the prescriptions of the law concerning lepers.

Geneva Study Bible

But when raw flesh appeareth in him, he shall be unclean.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Leviticus 13:14

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"But in the day when proud flesh appears upon him, he is unclean,...the proud flesh is unclean; it is leprosy." That is to say, if proud flesh appeared after the body had been covered with a white scurf, with which the diseased matter had apparently exhausted itself, the disease was not removed, and the person affected with it was to be pronounced unclean.

The third case: if the leprosy proceeded from an abscess which had been cured. In Leviticus 13:18 בּשׂר is first of all used absolutely, and then resumed with בּו, and the latter again is more closely defined in בּעורו: "if there arises in the flesh, in him, in his skin, an abscess, and (it) is healed, and there arises in the place of the abscess a white elevation, or a spot of a reddish white, he (the person so affected) shall appear at the priest's."