As long as he has the infection, he remains unclean. He must live alone in a place outside the camp.
Parallel translations
- WEB All the days in which the plague is in him he shall be unclean. He is unclean. He shall dwell alone. Outside of the camp shall be his dwelling.
- KJV All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.
- ESV He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.
- NKJV He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore he shall be unclean. He is unclean, and he shall dwell alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.
- NASB He shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection; he is unclean. He shall live alone; he shall live outside the camp.
- NLT As long as the serious disease lasts, they will be ceremonially unclean. They must live in isolation in their place outside the camp.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
As long as the disease remains, the leper stays unclean and must live alone outside the camp. It matters because sin's defilement separates a person from the community and the presence of God.
Overview
Lifelong or long-term separation from the camp dramatized the isolating power of uncleanness, cutting the sufferer off from worship and fellowship. The exile 'outside the camp' shows how defilement excludes from God's dwelling. Christ bore reproach 'outside the camp' (Hebrews 13:12-13) and touched lepers without being defiled, reversing this exile and bringing the unclean back into fellowship.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- 2 Kgs 7:3Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate, and they said to one another, “Why just sit here until we die?
- 2 Kgs 15:5And the LORD afflicted the king with leprosy until the day he died, so that he lived in a separate house while his son Jotham had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.
- 2 Chr 26:21So King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He lived in isolation, leprous and cut off from the house of the LORD, while his son Jotham had charge of the royal palace to govern the people of the land.
- Num 12:14–15But the LORD answered Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp for seven days; after that she may be brought back in.”
- Num 5:1–4Then the LORD said to Moses,
- 2 Th 3:14Take note of anyone who does not obey the instructions we have given in this letter. Do not associate with him, so that he may be ashamed.
- Lam 1:1How lonely lies the city, once so full of people! She who was great among the nations has become a widow. The princess of the provinces has become a slave.
- Rev 21:27But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who practices an abomination or a lie, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
- 1 Cor 5:5hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.
- Luke 17:12As He entered one of the villages, He was met by ten lepers. They stood at a distance
- 1 Tim 6:5and constant friction between men of depraved mind who are devoid of the truth. These men regard godliness as a means of gain.
- 1 Cor 5:9–13I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.
- Rev 22:15But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
- Prov 30:12There is a generation of those who are pure in their own eyes and yet unwashed of their filth.
- 2 Th 3:6Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from any brother who leads an undisciplined life that is not in keeping with the tradition you received from us.
- Lam 1:8Jerusalem has sinned greatly; therefore she has become an object of scorn. All who honored her now despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns away.
- Heb 12:15–16See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springs up to cause trouble and defile many.
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Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 13:46 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.