1. Lévitique 14:9 (NEG79)
  2. Explication du texte

Why did the healed person have to stay outside the camp for seven days?

Lévitique 14:9 (NEG79)

9 Le septième jour, il rasera tout son poil, sa tête, sa barbe, ses sourcils, il rasera tout son poil; il lavera ses vêtements, et baignera son corps dans l'eau, et il sera pur.

On the seventh day the person shaved and washed again in order to prepare for the second offering. Seven days of waiting was a precautionary step to ensure full recovery. The person waited for the ritual to continue on the eighth day in order to be restored to the covenant community. Anthropologists call these ceremonial rituals rites of aggregation. That is, these are ceremonies in which a person who is in an abnormal social condition is reintegrated into ordinary society.