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.
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.
- BSB As long as he has the infection, he remains unclean. He must live alone in a place 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 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 7:3And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?
- 2 Kgs 15:5And the LORD smote the king, so that he was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house. And Jotham the king’s son was over the house, judging the people of the land.
- 2 Chr 26:21And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the LORD: and Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land.
- Num 12:14–15And the LORD said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again.
- Num 5:1–4And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
- 2 Th 3:14And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.
- Lam 1:1How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!
- Rev 21:27And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
- 1 Cor 5:5To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
- Luke 17:12And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:
- 1 Tim 6:5Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.
- 1 Cor 5:9–13I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
- Rev 22:15For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
- Prov 30:12There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.
- 2 Th 3:6Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.
- Lam 1:8Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.
- Heb 12:15–16Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
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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.