Charles Ellicott Commentary Leviticus 14:9

"And it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off: and he shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and he shall be clean." — Leviticus 14:9 (ASV)

But it shall be ... — Better, And it shall be. The second stage of purification, which restored the convalescent to the communion of the sanctuary, began on the seventh day, when, as a first act, he had to shave off all the hair from his body again.

Also he shall wash his flesh. —Better, and he shall bathe himself, or his body. The expression “flesh” simply means self, or body, as the Authorised Version rightly translates it in Ecclesiastes 2:3; Isaiah 10:8; Ezekiel 10:12.

Besides Numbers 19:7, the full phrase, “to wash the flesh in water,” occurs eight times, and always in Leviticus (Leviticus 14:9; Leviticus 15:13; Leviticus 15:16; Leviticus 16:4; Leviticus 16:24; Leviticus 16:26; Leviticus 16:28; Leviticus 22:6). It is rendered in three different ways in the Authorised Version:

1. “wash his flesh in water” (Leviticus 14:9; Leviticus 15:16; Leviticus 16:4);
2. “wash his flesh with water” (Leviticus 16:24);
3. “bathe his flesh in water” (Leviticus 15:13; Leviticus 16:24; Leviticus 16:26; Leviticus 16:28; Numbers 19:7).

When a peculiar ritual phrase in the original designedly deviates in a single section from another phrase used to express the same idea (Leviticus 15:5–8; Leviticus 15:10; Leviticus 15:12; Leviticus 15:16; Leviticus 15:18; Leviticus 15:21–22; Leviticus 15:27; Leviticus 17:15), it is essential that it should be translated by the identical phrase in English.

During the Second Temple period, restored lepers bathed in a chamber at the northwestern corner of the Court of the Women, called the “chamber of the lepers.”