“et si a fronte ceciderint pili, recalvaster et mundus est.”
“And he that hath his hair fallen off from the part of his head toward his face, he is forehead bald: yet is he clean.”
“Or if his hairline recedes and he is bald on his forehead, he is still clean.”
“If his hair has fallen off from the front part of his head, he is forehead bald. He is clean.”
“And if his hair be fallen off from the front part of his head, he is forehead bald; yet is he clean.”
By sickness, or any other inconvenience.
I. Provisos that neither a freckled skin nor a bald head should be mistaken for a leprosy, v. 38-41. Every deformity must not forthwith be made a ceremonial defilement. Elisha was jeered for his bald head (2 Kings 2 23); but it was the children of Bethel, that knew not the judgments of their God, who turned it to his reproach.
Verses 18-44 The priest is told what judgment to make, if there were any appearance of a leprosy in old sores; and such is the danger of those who having escaped the pollutions of the world are again entangled therein. Or, in a burn by accident, ver. ( 24 ) . The burning of strife and contention often occasions the rising and breaking out of that corruption, which proves that men are unclean. Human life lies exposed to many grievances. With what troops of diseases are we beset on every side; and thy all entered by sin! If the constitution be healthy, and the body lively and easy, we are bound to glorify God with our bodies. Particular note was taken of the leprosy, if in the head. If the leprosy of sin has seized the head; if the judgment be corrupted, and wicked principles, which support wicked practices, are embraced, it is utter uncleanness, from which few are cleansed. Soundness in the faith keeps leprosy from the head.