Luke 5:13

And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:12-16 This man is said to be full of leprosy; he had that distemper in a high degree, which represents our natural pollution by sin; we are full of that leprosy; from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot there is no soundness in us. Strong confidence and deep humility are united in the words of this leper. And if any sinner, from a deep sense of vileness, says, I know the Lord can cleanse, but will he look upon such a one as me? will he apply his own precious blood for my cleansing and healing? Yes, he will. Speak not as doubting, but as humbly referring the matter to Christ. And being saved from the guilt and power of our sins, let us spread abroad Christ's fame, and bring others to hear him and to be healed.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the notes at Matthew 8:2-4.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Lu 5:12-16. Leper Healed.

(See on [1573]Mt 8:2-4.)

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 5:12"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he put forth his hand and touched him,.... Having compassion on him, and commiserating his sad case:

saying, I will, be thou clean; and immediately the leprosy departed from him; See Gill on Matthew 8:3.

Geneva Study Bible

And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 5:13. ἥψατο: this also in all three—a cardinal point; the touch the practical proof of the will and the sympathy. No shrinking from the loathsome disease.—ἡ λέπρα ἀπῆλθεν: Lk. takes one of Mk.’s two phrases, Mt. the other. Lk. takes the one which most clearly implies a cure; ἐκαθερίσθη (Mt.) might conceivably mean: became technically clean.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

13. and touched him] This was a distinct violation of the letter, but not of course of the spirit of the Mosaic law (Leviticus 13:46; Numbers 5:2). In order to prevent the accidental violation of this law, lepers, until the final stage of the disease, were then as now secluded from all living contact with others, “differing in nothing from a dead man” (Jos. Ant. iii. 11 § 3), and only appeared in public with the cry Tamê, Tamê—‘Unclean! Unclean!’ But Jesus, “because He is the Lord of the Law, does not obey the Law, but makes the Law” (St Ambrose); or rather, he obeys that divine eternal Law of Compassion, in its sudden impulse (σπλαγχνισθεὶς, Mark 1:40), which is older and grander than the written Law. (So Elijah and Elisha had not scrupled to touch the dead, 1 Kings 17:21; 2 Kings 4:34.) His touching the leper, yet remaining clean, is a type of His taking our humanity upon Him, remaining undefiled.

I will: be thou clean] Two words in the original—“a prompt echo to the ripe faith of the leper”—which are accurately preserved by all three Evangelists. Our Lord’s first miracles were done with a glad spontaneity in answer to faith. But when men had ceased to believe in Him, then lack of faith rendered His later miracles more sad and more delayed (Mark 6:5; Matthew 13:58). We never however hear of a moment s delay in attending to the cry of a leper. When the sinner cries from his heart, “I have sinned against the Lord,” the answer comes instantly, “The Lord also hath put away thy sin” (2 Samuel 12:13).

the leprosy departed] Jesus was not polluted by the touch, but the leper was cleansed. Even so he touched our sinful nature, yet without sin (H. de St Victore).

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 5:13. Καὶ, and) [καὶ forming the Apodosis, and as the consequence, etc.] [A most real and immediate fruit of his prayers.—V. g.]

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 13. - And he put forth his hand, mad touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. St. Mark adds here, "being touched with compassion." The Redeemer, at the sight of the man's awful wretchedness - wasting away, shunned by all men, dragging on a hopeless, aimless, weary life - in his Divine pity, with a sudden impulse tosses aside all considerations of ceremonial uncleanness or contagion, and lays his hand on the miserable sufferer from whom all shrank, with his word of power exclaimed, "I will: be thou clean." St. Ambrose writes here how "Jesus, because he is the Lord of the Law, does not obey the Law, but makes the Law." "Here Jesus obeys that Divine eternal law of compassion, in its sudden impulse, which is older and grander than the written Law" (Farrar). It is observable that in these sudden cases, in which the common brotherhood of man was involved, the nobler spirits of Israel ever rose above all consideration of law and custom, and, putting aside all legal, orthodox restriction, obeyed at once the sovereign dictates of the heart. So Elijah and Elisha, those true saints of God, shrank not from touching the dead. Luke 5:13

Vincent's Word Studies

I will (θέλω)

See on Matthew 1:19.

Be thou clean (καθαρίσθητι)

Rev., more accurately, gives the force of the passive voice, be thou made clean.