2-kings 15:5

Several house - Separated house; segregated place.

The Lord smote the king, so that he was a leper - The reason of this plague is well told in the above quoted chapter, 2 Chronicles 26:16.

That his heart being elated, he went into the temple to burn incense upon the altar, assuming to himself the functions of the high priest; that Azariah the priest, with fourscore others, went in after him, to prevent him; and that while they were remonstrating against his conduct, the Lord struck him with the leprosy, which immediately appeared on his forehead; that they thrust him out as an unclean person; and that he himself hurried to get out, feeling that the Lord had smitten him; that he was obliged to dwell in a house by himself, being leprous, to the day of his death; and that during this time the affairs of the kingdom were administered by his son Jotham. A poet, ridiculing the conduct of those who, without an episcopal ordination, think they have authority from God to dispense all the ordinances of the Church, expresses himself thus: -

But now the warm enthusiast cries,

The office to myself Itake;

Offering the Christian sacrifice,

Myself a lawful priest I:make:

To me this honor appertains,

No need of man when God ordains.

[Some go into the contrary extreme, and in effect say, no need of God when Man ordains.]

Though kings may not so far presume,

'Tis no presumption in a clown,

And, lo, without a call from Rome,

My flail or hammer I lay down;

continued...

The Lord smote the king, so that he was a leper - The circumstances under which this terrible affliction befel one of the greatest of the Jewish kings, are given at some length by the author of Chronicles (marginal reference), who supplies us with a tolerably full account of this important reign, which the writer of Kings dismisses in half-a-dozen verses.

A several house - "A house of liberation," or, freedom. On the necessity, under which the Law placed lepers, of living apart from other men, see marginal reference Jotham became regent in his father's room, and exercised the functions of judge (1 Kings 3:9 note), from the time that his father became a leper.

15:5 A leper - The cause whereof see 2 Chronicles 26:16 .