“Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’
As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp. (Lev. 13:45-46 NIV)
A nation of people living in the wilderness as God was moving them toward the land he had promised to give to them. The year was sometime around 1445 BC.
The passage above gives some of the instructions for dealing with infectious disease.
Notice how similar it is to the instructions given to us today regarding the current concern for an infectious disease.
If you read deeper into the context, you will see that they were to wash themselves and their clothing. They were to identify themselves as “unclean” or infected. They were to cover the lower part of their face—nose and mouth?. They were to isolate themselves for as long as the disease was still with them.
We have a responsibility to help the sick. The sick have a responsibility to warn others and try to keep the disease from spreading. We work together to help and protect as best as we can.