Then the priest shall command that they empty the house,.... Clear it of all persons and things; everybody was obliged to go out of it; and all the furniture of it, all the household goods in it, were to be removed from it:before the priest go [into it] to see the plague, that all that [is] in the house be not made clean; as would be the case should the priest view it, and pronounce it unclean before the removal of them; agreeably to which is the Jewish tradition , before a priest comes to see the plague, not anything in the house is defiled; but after he is come to see it, even bundles of sticks, and of reeds, are defiled, which are not reckoned under the uncleanness to be removed: so that this was a kindness to the owner of the house, that his loss might not be so great as it otherwise would be, if he did not take care to get his goods out previous to the inspection of the priest:and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house; to examine it, whether the signs of leprosy are in it.
Misn. Nagaim, c. 12. sect.