(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Numbers 5: 1-10, “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead: Both male and female shall ye put out, without the camp shall ye put them; that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell. And the children of Israel did so, and put them out without the camp: as the LORD spake unto Moses, so did the children of Israel. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit, to do a trespass against the LORD, and that person be guilty; Then they shall confess their sin which they have done: and he shall recompense his trespass with the principal thereof, and add unto it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed. But if the man have no kinsman to recompense the trespass unto, let the trespass be recompensed unto the LORD, even to the priest; beside the ram of the atonement, whereby an atonement shall be made for him. And every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring unto the priest, shall be his. And every man’s hallowed things shall be his: whatsoever any man giveth the priest, it shall be his.”
This section concerns a public health issue rather than a human right issue. There were no inoculations available against leprosy in those days and there were about 2 million people living in close proximity to each other. If a disease managed to take hold in the camp then many thousands of people would die. In order to make sure that this didn’t happen people with communicable diseases were asked to move away from the camp. The people were still fed and supported because the manna came every day around the camp as well. The next issue concerned problems between people, if someone offended another person then the issue had to be dealt with straight away. The person who did wrong was required to confess the fact that they had done wrong and then pay compensation. If problems like this were allowed to fester in the camp then the entire nation would become divided and destroy itself. After all there were no other people out there in the middle of the desert to deflect any anger onto. The priest also had rights; his first task was to act on behalf of the Lord among men so he had to have some form of income. If someone gave an offering to the priest, it belonged to the priest and not to the person who gave it. This meant that the priest was free to use the gift however he wanted and the giver had no say in how the priest used the gift.
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