A leprous plague could infect a house during the days of ancient Israel in the Land of Canaan.
The owner had to go to the priest to report what the owner suspected might be leprosy, and then he would have to empty the house before the priest could examine the structure. This way nothing else in the house would become unclean.
If the priest discovered ingrained streaks, greenish or reddish, in the suspected plague (Leviticus 14.37), he was to do the following,
“then the priest shall go out of the house, to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days. And the priest shall come again on the seventh day and look; and indeed if the plague has spread on the walls of the house” (Leviticus 14.38, 39),
the priest had to remove those infected stones and take them to an unclean place.
Just as humans were isolated seven days, so was a home.
This was sufficient to decide whether the plague was leprosy.
Sevens in the Bible 
Don,
Another good message!
We think the primary Bible metaphor for leprosy is SIN.
However there may be a secondary parallel for folks today who live in houses filled with mildew and, as a result, suffer all manner of ailments. Go to http://www.biblelimericks.com, Archives, and read “Leviticus 14: 57 – Leprosy, Total Removal”.
Jim Burgoon
Jim, I agree with you that leprosy can certainly be a metaphor for sin.
Thanks for referring us to your limerick on Leviticus 14.57:
http://www.biblebuslimericks.com/limerick.php?id=3104
Don
When they ignore so many of the regulations cited in the same sections of this OT book
For example:
One must do no work or travel except by foot on Saturday
One may not eat pork, lobster, oyster, corned beef, beef or lamb fat
One may not touch a menstruating woman
Menstruating women cannot prepare food and must be isolated
After having sexual intercourse the couple must immediately bathe thoroughly and change the bedclothes.
If you have a bad pimple you must get it inspected by a priest as you may be unclean (holy writ about a bad zit)
…….there are 100s of such regulations in Leviticus all as binding as the homosexuality prohibition, very few of which Christians seem to obey.
Isn’t it therefore reasonable to regard this selectivity as hypocritical homophobia
No, it is not “hypocritical homophobia.”
Jesus at His death, nailed the rituals of the Law of Moses to the cross, but He preserved the eternal truths that predated the Law of Moses, such as on subject you mentioned, the issue of marriage.
God created one man and one woman for one another in the beginning without making provisions for divorce, and without making provisions for polygamy, and without making provisions for same-sex marriage.
Don Ruhl
Hi friends,
The thing that I wanted to get clarified is that how come the leprasy infection will be justified by seeing wall color and it’s damage… Also is that demolishing the house and rebuilding the house can cure the leprasy..up to me it doesn’t make any sense.
Sometimes extreme measures must be taken to eradicate a problem, such as the form of leprosy that the ancient Israelites confronted in the Land of Canaan.