John Calvin Commentary Numbers 5:2

"Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is unclean by the dead:" — Numbers 5:2 (ASV)

Command the children of Israel. This passage clearly shows that God, in desiring the lepers to be put out of the camp, was not acting as a physician by any means, nor merely consulting the health of the people. Rather, by this external rite and ceremony, He exercised them in the pursuit of purity. For by joining with the lepers those who had an issue,² and who were defiled by the dead, He instructs the people simply to keep away from all uncleanness.

The reason, which follows, confirms this—that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof He dwells. It is just as if He had said that all the habitations of His elect people were parts of His sanctuary, which it was a shame to defile with any pollution.

For we know what license men give themselves in corrupting³ the service of God, by mixing, as the proverb says, sacred things with profane. Thus we see that the very worst of men boast themselves to be anything but the least zealous of His worshipers, and do not hesitate to lift up polluted hands, although God so sternly repudiates them.

It was, then, profitable that the ancient people should be reminded by this visible proof: that all those who are defiled cannot duly serve God, but rather pollute with their filthiness what is otherwise holy and thus grossly abuse religious exercises; and furthermore, that they ought not to be tolerated in the holy congregation, lest their infection should spread to others.

Let us now briefly examine Leviticus 13.

² Seminifiuos — — Lat.

³ Brouiller et abastardlir — — Fr..