Leviticus 13: What to do about your skin care problems

Synopsis:

If you have a skin lesion or problem, you are to go to the priest who will assess you and diagnose you. If it looks like the plague or leprosy, you will be isolated for 7 days.  If your skin clears up, great, if not, you are isolated for another 7 days and reassessed. The rest of this chapter goes into detail on what to look for. For instance, if your skin has a raise but it is white and the hair coming out of it is white, then it is old leprosy and you are clean. If, however, you have a boil that is raised and white with some red, you are unclean and have leprosy.  If you are diagnosed with leprosy, you are to be isolated and your clothing burned because it has the disease in it.

In other words:

The priests are to act as doctors and diagnose and treat skin plagues like leprosy.

Favorite bit:

Leviticus 13:49 – “And if the plague be greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, either in the warp or in the wood, or in anything of skin; it is the plague of leprosy and shall be showed to the priest.”   I like this because it shows the detail of this chapter. It is one of the longest in Leviticus and it makes sense that dealing with skin ailments to prevent their spread in an encampment would be really important.

Moral Lesson Learned:

• Go to the doctor if you suspect something is wrong (Leviticus 13)
• Take care not to spread disease to others (Leviticus 13)