This procedure will determine whether a person or object is ceremonially clean or unclean. “These are the instructions regarding skin diseases and mildew.”
Parallel translations
- WEB to teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean. This is the law of leprosy.
- KJV To teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean: this is the law of leprosy.
- BSB to determine when something is clean or unclean. This is the law regarding skin diseases and mildew.”
- NKJV to teach when it is unclean and when it is clean. This is the law of leprosy.”
- NASB to teach when they are unclean and when they are clean. This is the law of leprosy.
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
The purpose of these laws was to teach Israel to distinguish the unclean from the clean; this concludes the law of leprosy. It underscores that God's people must learn to tell holy from defiled.
Overview
This closing statement gives the aim of the whole section: instruction in discerning clean from unclean. Israel's life with a holy God required constant attention to what defiles and what restores. The principle endures for believers, who are called to discernment and purity, and it points forward to Christ, whose cleansing makes the unclean fit to dwell with God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Lev 10:10You are to make a distinction between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean.
- Jer 15:19Therefore Yahweh says, “If you return, then I will bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth. They shall return to you, but you shall not return to them.
- Ezek 44:23They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
- Deut 24:8Be careful in the plague of leprosy, that you observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites teach you. As I commanded them, so you shall observe to do.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 14:57 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.