Lévitique 14:34

ונתתי נגע צרעת [WHEN YOU COME TO THE LAND …]I WILL PUT THE PLAGUE OF THE LEPROSY — This was an announcement to them that these plagues would come upon them (Sifra, Metzora, Section 5 4; Horayot 10a), because the Amorites concealed treasures of gold in the walls of their houses during the whole 40 years the Israelites were in the wilderness in order that these might not possess them when they conquered Israel, and in consequence of the plague they would pull down the house and discover them (Leviticus Rabbah 17:6).

When you have entered upon the land of Kenaan which I will give you for a possession, and a man who hath builded a house by rapine finds that I have put the plague of leprosy in the house of the land of your inheritance;

When you come to the land of Canaan These laws apply only to the Holy Land, because of its great importance, insofar as the Holy Land contained the Temple, wherein resided the Glory.

I will place These symptoms require Divine intervention.

Scripture states with reference to plagues in houses, and ‘I’ shall put the plague of leprosy, in order to allude to the fact that it was G-d’s hand that did this, and not an act of nature at all, as I have explained. It states, When ye are come into the land of Canaan etc. in a house of the Land of your possession, because He is speaking to all Israel [since Moses and Aaron did not come into the Land]. Now it would have been proper that after the verse, And the Eternal spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, He should continue to state, “Speak ye unto the children of Israel.” But Scripture shortens the account since it is self-understood [that the command was to be given to the children of Israel who would enter the Land]. Or it may be that He spoke to them in the place of [i.e., as representing] all Israel, and hinted that the intention [of giving the commandment] now is merely to teach them all the laws of leprosy, and that they in turn should teach them to the priests, and Moses did not warn all Israel now [about these laws, as they did not apply until they came into the Land]. It was only those who came into the Land that he warned, Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that thou observe diligently etc.,, 1:3 where it says that the Book of Deuteronomy was said in the fortieth year, i.e., to those about to enter the Land. for it was to them that he commanded at first to take heed in these ordinances.

ונתתי, “I will give;” the Lord said to the Jewish people: see how different you are from the nations of the globe; when the former sin, I first punish them, as we know from Genesis 12,17: וינגע ה' את פרעה ואת ביתו “the Lord afflicted Pharaoh with a plague and his house" when I have occasion to strike anyone of you with a plague, I warn them by first sending a plague to the sinner’s house, and garment before striking his flesh. (Compare our verse here.) Why would I do this, seeing that the stones and the timber have not committed any sins against Me? I do this in order to give you a warning that worse is to come if you do not heed My warning. Before I sent Sancheriv to exile the ten tribes, I first let him conquer all the countries surrounding yours, so that you would take notice and mend your ways. Compare what the prophet Tzefaniah wrote in Tzefaniah 3,6: הכרתי גוים נשמו פנותם, החרבתי חוצותם מבלי עובר נצדו עריהם מבלי איש מאין יושב. “I wiped out nations, their corner towers are desolate; I turned their thoroughfares into ruins, with none passing by; their towns lie waste without people, without inhabitants.” This is how G–d sends warnings to His people of what might befall them unless they mend their ways by afflicting their possessions before afflicting them. [The prophet spells all this out in subsequent verses. Ed.] In verse 55 of our chapter, the afflicted house and subsequently the afflicted garments of a person, are cited as warnings of physical afflictions to follow if the warnings were ignored. If the warnings were heeded by the owner of those houses or garments mending their ways their flesh will not become affected. We know this from what is written in chapter 15 verse 2: איש כי יהיה בו זב וגו', “when any man has a discharge emanating from his sexual organ he is ritually contaminated.” This is also what Solomon had in mind when he wrote in Proverbs 19,29:נכונו ללצים שפטים, ומהלמות לגו כסילים, ”punishments are prepared for the scoffers, beatings for the backs of the fools.” G–d is quoted by Solomon as having said that He prepared these methods of disciplining Man already before He even created Man himself.