and
sheep, and bulls.

3. He also ordered that those whose bodies were afflicted with leprosy,
and that had a gonorrhea, should not come into the city; nay, he removed
the women, when they had their natural purgations, till the seventh day;
after which he looked on them as pure, and permitted them to come in
again. The law permits those also who have taken care of funerals to
come in after the same manner, when this number of days is over; but if
any continued longer than that number of days in a state of pollution,
the law appointed the offering two lambs for a sacrifice; the one of
which they are to purge by fire, and for the other, the priests take it
for themselves. In the same manner do those sacrifice who have had the
gonorrhea. But he that sheds his seed in his sleep, if he go down
into cold water, has the same privilege with those that have lawfully
accompanied with their wives. And for the lepers, he suffered them not
to come into the city at all, nor to live with any others, as if they
were in effect dead persons; but if any one had obtained by prayer
to God, the recovery from that distemper, and had gained a healthful
complexion again, such a one returned thanks to God, with several sorts
of sacrifices; concerning which we will speak hereafter.

4. Whence one cannot but smile at those who say that Moses was himself
afflicted with the leprosy when he fled out of Egypt, and that he became
the conductor of those who on that account left that country, and led
them into the land of Canaan; for had this been true, Moses would not
have made these laws to his own dishonor, which indeed it was more
likely he would have opposed, if others had endeavored to introduce
them; and this the rather, because there are lepers in many nations, who
yet are in honor, and not only free from reproach and avoidance, but who
have been great captains of armies, and been intrusted with high offices
in the commonwealth, and have had the privilege of entering into holy
places and temples; so that nothing hindered, but if either Moses
himself, or the multitude that was with him, had been liable to such a
misfortune in the color of his skin, he might have made laws about them
for their credit and advantage, and have laid no manner of difficulty
upon them. Accordingly, it is a plain case, that it is out of violent
prejudice only that they report these things about us. But Moses was
pure from any such distemper, and lived with countrymen who