Leviticus 14:7
Wherewith he shall sprinkle him that is to be cleansed seven times, that he may be rightly purified: and he shall let go the living sparrow, that it may fly into the field.
Open Leviticus 14:7 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →In the palace
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- quo asperget illum, qui mundandus est, septies, ut jure purgetur : et dimittet passerem vivum, ut in agrum avolet.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ περιρανεῖ ἐπὶ τὸν καθαρισθέντα ἀπὸ τῆς λέπρας ἑπτάκις, καὶ καθαρὸς ἔσται· καὶ ἐξαποστελεῖ τὸ ὀρνίθιον τὸ ζῶν εἰς τὸ πεδίον.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְהִזָּ֗ה עַ֧ל הַמִּטַּהֵ֛ר מִן הַצָּרַ֖עַת שֶׁ֣בַע פְּעָמִ֑ים וְטִ֣הֲר֔וֹ וְשִׁלַּ֛ח אֶת הַצִּפֹּ֥ר הַֽחַיָּ֖ה עַל פְּנֵ֥י הַשָּׂדֶֽה
Haydock's commentary
Rightly. According to law. (Haydock)
The number seven is used to denote perfection, ver. 15, &c. (Menochius)
Field. An emblem of the liberty which the leper would soon enjoy. (Haydock)
The pagans cast over their head the things which had been used for their purification. (Virgil, Ec. viii. 102.) Fer cineres, Amarilli, foras, rivoque fluenti
Transque caput jace, ne respexeris.
They were afraid to trample upon them. (Gell. x. 15.; Metam. xiii. 954.) They were also accustomed to set birds at liberty in honour of their gods. Demosthenes accuses Conon of having eaten those which had been used in his purification. Bonfrere believes that Moses does not here prescribe any sacrifice. Why then is a priest employed to make these aspersions? (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Matthew VII. 28
But wherefore did He command him also to show himself to the priest, and to offer a gift? To fulfill the law here again. For neither did He in every instance set it aside, nor in every instance keep it, but sometimes He did the one, sometimes the other; by the one making way for the high ruleof life that was to come, by the other checking for a while the insolent speech of the Jews, and condescending to their infirmity. And why marvel, if just at the beginning He Himself did this, when even the very apostles, after they were commanded to depart unto the Gentiles, after the doors were opened for their teaching throughout the world, and the law shut up, and the commandments made new, and all the ancient things had ceased, are found sometimes observing the law, sometimes neglecting it?
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).