Moses, mediating Yahweh's covenant instruction to Israel within the Torah.
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Leviticus 13
Priestly Examination of Skin Disease, Uncleanness, and Contaminated Garments
The holy Lord requires His priests to discern clean from unclean carefully, protecting both His holy dwelling and His covenant community from defiling conditions.
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Chapter Summary
The holy Lord requires His priests to discern clean from unclean carefully, protecting both His holy dwelling and His covenant community from defiling conditions.
Overview
Leviticus 13 teaches that holiness requires careful discernment, patient examination, and truthful declaration. The priest does not create uncleanness but identifies and declares it according to the Lord's instruction. The chapter refuses both carelessness and panic: not every rash is defiling, yet confirmed uncleanness cannot remain in the camp as though nothing has happened.
The community must preserve holiness without confusing every bodily condition with moral guilt. The chapter also shows that impurity can spread beyond the body into garments and household material, requiring cleansing or destruction.
Context
Israel's covenant community, especially priests responsible to examine skin conditions and contaminated garments, and the people who must live under the Lord's holiness while discerning clean and unclean conditions.
Leviticus 13 continues the clean and unclean section of Leviticus 11-15. After instructions about clean and unclean creatures in Leviticus 11 and childbirth purification in Leviticus 12, the Lord now gives detailed priestly diagnostic procedures for serious skin conditions and fabric or leather contamination.
The holy Lord requires His priests to discern clean from unclean carefully, protecting both His holy dwelling and His covenant community from defiling conditions.
Moses, mediating Yahweh's covenant instruction to Israel within the Torah.
Israel's covenant community, especially priests responsible to examine skin conditions and contaminated garments, and the people who must live under the Lord's holiness while discerning clean and unclean conditions.
Leviticus 13 continues the clean and unclean section of Leviticus 11-15. After instructions about clean and unclean creatures in Leviticus 11 and childbirth purification in Leviticus 12, the Lord now gives detailed priestly diagnostic procedures for serious skin conditions and fabric or leather contamination.
Social Pressure
- Israel must learn that impurity can affect the body, clothing, household life, public worship, and community boundaries. Priests must exercise careful discernment rather than guesswork. The community must protect holiness without cruelty, panic, or careless inclusion of uncleanness into the camp.
Ancient communities feared visible skin disease and contamination because such conditions could threaten social, ritual, and practical life. Leviticus does not treat every skin condition as moral guilt. It gives priestly procedures for examination, quarantine, reinspection, declaration, cleansing, isolation, and destruction of contaminated material. The priest functions as a holiness examiner, not as a medical healer in the modern sense.
After redemption from Egypt, covenant formation at Sinai, tabernacle construction, sacrificial instruction, and priestly ordination, Israel is being trained to live with the holy Lord in their midst. Leviticus 13 teaches that the covenant community must distinguish clean from unclean even when uncleanness appears on the body or garments.
Chapter Movement
The Lord commands Moses and Aaron to instruct the priests how to examine swelling, rash, bright spots, raw flesh, boils, burns, scalp disease, harmless rashes, baldness-related conditions, confirmed defiling disease, and contaminated fabric or leather, so that clean and unclean may be rightly distinguished.
Discourse Insight
Theological exposition and fulfillment
Leviticus 13 clarifies the gospel by showing that uncleanness creates separation and that priestly diagnosis alone cannot heal. The unclean person outside the camp embodies the human need for cleansing, restoration, and access. Jesus enters this world of uncleanness, touches and cleanses lepers, and ultimately suffers outside the gate to make His people holy by His blood.
Structural Flow
Suspicious skin conditions are brought to the priest, who examines and declares clean or unclean.
Uncertain cases require isolation, waiting, and priestly reexamination before declaration.
Raw flesh indicates uncleanness, while complete whitening without raw flesh can lead to a clean declaration.
Post-boil marks are examined for depth, hair change, and spread.
Post-burn marks are examined by similar criteria.
Scalp or beard sores require examination, isolation, shaving around the spot, and reinspection.
Certain white spots and ordinary baldness are declared clean.
Reddish-white sores on a bald area may indicate uncleanness.
The unclean person lives under visible signs of uncleanness and outside the camp.
Priests examine contaminated fabric and leather, determining washing, burning, tearing, or clean status.
Chapter Outline
- 13:1-8: Skin conditions are not judged by impulse. The priest examines, isolates, waits, reexamines, and declares clean or unclean according to the Lord's criteria.
- 13:9-28: Chronic disease, raw flesh, post-boil spots, and post-burn spots require careful priestly discernment based on depth, hair, spread, and appearance.
- 13:29-44: Not every visible condition is unclean. The priest distinguishes serious disease from harmless rash and ordinary baldness.
- 13:45-46: The unclean person must publicly acknowledge uncleanness and live outside the camp as long as the condition remains.
- 13:47-59: Fabric and leather contamination must be examined, isolated, washed, burned, torn out, or declared clean according to priestly assessment.
Key Hebrew Terms
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דָּבַר is the primary Hebrew verb for speaking and it generates the most theologically important noun in the OT: דָּבָר (dābar), the word. The verb and noun together form the backbone of the OT's theology of divine communication. When God dābars, things happen: the creation narratives are structured by divine speech ('God said... and there was'); the covenant is founded on divine words (the Ten Words, ʿăśeret haddĕbārîm, the Decalogue); and the prophets speak as dābar YHWH came to me — the formula that opens the major and minor prophets dozens of times.
The noun dābar (H1697) carries an enormous semantic range: it means word, thing, event, matter, affair, and promise. The overlap between 'word' and 'event' is theologically crucial — in Hebrew thought, the divine word is not merely informational but performative and effective. 'The word that goes forth from my mouth shall not return to me empty, but shall accomplish that which I purpose' (Isa 55:11).
The dābar YHWH does not merely describe reality; it creates it. The dābar YHWH as the technical formula for prophetic reception occurs over 240 times in the OT. The prophet who speaks is not giving an opinion; they have received a dābar — a specific, authorized, effective word from the divine Speaker. The NT's 'the Word became flesh' (John 1:14) is the climactic dābar event: the divine speech that has been going forth since creation becomes incarnate in a person.
Sense to speak
Definition to speak
References 13:1
Why it matters The Lord speaks to Moses and Aaron, grounding the diagnostic laws in divine revelation.
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Sense Aaron
Definition Aaron
References 13:1
Why it matters Aaron is addressed because the priesthood must examine and distinguish clean from unclean.
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אָדָם means man, humanity, the human creature. It functions simultaneously as a proper name (Adam, the first human), a collective noun (mankind, the human species), and a common noun (a human being, a person). The word is inseparable from אֲדָמָה (ground, earth) — both in its likely etymology and in the Genesis creation narrative, where אָדָם is formed from אֲדָמָה and returns to it at death. The human creature is the earth-creature, the ground-formed being.
The theological weight of אָדָם rests on three foundational Genesis texts. First, Genesis 1:26-28: 'Let us make man (אָדָם) in our image, after our likeness... So God created man (הָאָדָם) in his own image.' The creature formed from earth is simultaneously the image-bearer of God — the only creature in the creation narrative described this way. The imago Dei (image of God) is the defining marker of what it means to be אָדָם. This gives the human creature a dignity that no other earthly creature shares, and a responsibility (dominion, stewardship) that flows from that dignity.
Second, Genesis 2:7: 'The Lord God formed the man (הָאָדָם) of dust from the ground (הָאֲדָמָה) and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.' The double nature of אָדָם is captured here: formed from the earth below (dust), animated by the breath from above (divine life). Neither dimension can be dropped without losing what אָדָם is.
Third, Genesis 3 and its consequences. The אָדָם who was made from the ground falls into sin and is told: 'You are dust, and to dust you shall return' (3:19). The name becomes laden with the weight of the fall: all humanity after Adam inherits not only the dignity of image-bearing but the condition of the fallen image-bearer — mortal, corrupted, under judgment. This is the theological gravity that Paul will leverage in Romans 5:12-21 and 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, 45-49: 'in Adam all die.'
Sense human, person
Definition human, person
References 13:2, 13:9
Why it matters The law concerns any person who develops suspicious conditions on the skin.
Sense skin, leather
Definition skin, leather
References 13:2-4, 13:11-13, 13:18-20, 13:24-28, 13:34, 13:38-39, 13:48-59
Why it matters Skin is the location of bodily disease, and leather is included in garment contamination procedures.
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בָּשָׂר in the OT is not a problem to be escaped — it is the creaturely substance of real human life. Gen 2:23-24 uses it for the profound union of marriage ('bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh'; 'they shall become one flesh'); Isa 40:5-6 uses it for the transience of all human glory ('all flesh is grass'); Gen 6:3 uses it for the creaturely limitation that makes humans dependent on God ('my Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh').
The word's range from kinship warmth to creaturely frailty makes it the OT's most human word. The theological weight comes from what it stands against: YHWH is not flesh (Isa 31:3), and 'all flesh' standing before YHWH is the posture of creatures before the Creator. The NT's escalation — 'the Word became flesh' (John 1:14) — is the most radical possible statement about the incarnation: the eternal Son entered the full creaturely condition that בָּשָׂר names, took on its transience and dependence, and did not thereby cease to be God.
Sense flesh, body
Definition flesh, body
References 13:2-4, 13:10-16, 13:18, 13:24, 13:38
Why it matters The flesh or body is examined for signs of defiling disease and raw flesh.
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Sense swelling, raised spot
Definition swelling, raised spot
References 13:2, 13:10, 13:19, 13:28, 13:43
Why it matters A swelling is one possible sign requiring priestly examination.
Sense rash, eruption, scab
Definition rash, eruption, scab
References 13:2
Why it matters A skin eruption that may develop into a defiling condition and must be examined.
Sense bright spot, shiny patch
Definition bright spot, shiny patch
References 13:2, 13:4, 13:19, 13:23-25, 13:28, 13:38-39
Why it matters A bright spot on the skin may require examination to determine clean or unclean status.
Sense defiling skin disease, scale disease, contamination
Definition defiling skin disease, scale disease, contamination
References 13:2-3, 13:8-9, 13:11-13, 13:15, 13:20, 13:25, 13:27, 13:30, 13:42-44, 13:47, 13:51-52, 13:59
Why it matters The central term for defiling disease or contamination affecting skin, hair areas, garments, and materials.
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כֹּהֵן (kōhēn) is the Hebrew word for priest — the person who serves in the sanctuary, mediates between the holy God and the people, offers sacrifices, teaches the law, and maintains the purity of the covenant community. The etymology is disputed but the functional definition is consistent throughout the OT: the priest is the one who draws near (qārab) to God on behalf of the people and who brings the people near to God through the sacrificial system.
The Aaronic priesthood (the sons of Aaron, bĕnê ʾahărôn) was the specific priestly line instituted at Sinai, with the high priest (hakkōhēn haggādôl) as its head. The priestly functions included: offering sacrifices (both for sin and for communion), maintaining the tabernacle/temple, pronouncing the Aaronic blessing (Num 6:24-26), teaching the law (Deut 17:8-11; Mal 2:7: 'the lips of a priest guard knowledge'), and discerning clean and unclean (Lev 10:10-11).
The high priest uniquely entered the Most Holy Place on Yom Kippur to make atonement for the whole people (Lev 16). The NT's high priesthood Christology — Christ as the great high priest (Hebrews) — is the direct fulfillment of the kōhēn institution. Christ is the priest who is also the sacrifice, who enters the heavenly Most Holy Place not with the blood of bulls and goats but with his own blood, making a once-for-all atonement that does not need to be repeated.
The OT kōhēn is the necessary background without which the NT priestly Christology is incomprehensible.
Sense priest
Definition priest
References 13:2-3, 13:5-6, 13:8-17, 13:20-23, 13:25-28, 13:30-37, 13:43-44, 13:49-59
Why it matters The priest examines, isolates, reexamines, and declares clean or unclean.
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רָאָה is one of the most common verbs in the Hebrew Bible, currently counted by the local OT index at about 1,314 uses, and its range reaches far beyond the physical act of seeing. In Hebrew thought, to see is to perceive, to experience, to know by direct encounter. The same verb covers a shepherd seeing a flock (Gen 29:2), a prophet receiving a vision (Isa 1:1 — the superscription says 'the vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw'), God seeing the affliction of his people (Exod 3:7), and the worshipper seeing the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (Ps 27:13).
This semantic range is not loose usage; it reflects a conviction that genuine perception is more than optical reception — it involves the whole person. The theologically decisive uses of rāʾâh concern what God sees and what God is seen doing. Hagar's naming of the well as Beer-lahai-roi — 'the well of the one who sees me' — after her encounter in the wilderness is the first explicit divine-seeing narrative: 'You are a God who sees' (Gen 16:13).
This is not merely surveillance; it is attentive, redemptive presence. The God of Israel sees the affliction of his people before acting (Exod 3:7; Exod 2:25), sees the heart when humans see only the outward appearance (1 Sam 16:7), and promises that the pure in heart will see him (Ps 24:6; Matt 5:8). The prophetic use of rāʾâh is equally foundational: the prophets are 'seers' (rōʾîm, the active participle), and their role is to see what others cannot — the divine perspective on human events.
To have vision is to have rāʾâh from God's point of view.
Sense to see, examine
Definition to see, examine
References 13:3, 13:5-6, 13:8, 13:10, 13:13, 13:17, 13:20-21, 13:25-27, 13:30-32, 13:34, 13:36-37, 13:43, 13:50-51, 13:53, 13:55-57
Why it matters The repeated verb for priestly examination, controlling the chapter's diagnostic process.
Sense hair
Definition hair
References 13:3-4, 13:10, 13:20-21, 13:25-26, 13:30-32, 13:36-37
Why it matters Hair color and condition are important diagnostic signs in skin and scalp disease.
Sense white
Definition white
References 13:3-4, 13:10, 13:13, 13:16-17, 13:19-20, 13:24-26, 13:38-39
Why it matters Whiteness of hair or skin may be diagnostically significant depending on context.
Sense appearance
Definition appearance
References 13:3-4, 13:12, 13:20, 13:25, 13:30, 13:34, 13:43
Why it matters The appearance of a condition guides priestly judgment.
Sense deep
Definition deep
References 13:3-4, 13:20, 13:25, 13:30-32, 13:34
Why it matters A condition appearing deeper than the skin is a sign of defiling disease.
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טָמֵא is the verb 'to be unclean' or 'to become defiled,' the antonym of טָהוֹר (clean) and the opposite of the domain of קָדוֹשׁ (holy). With about 162 occurrences in the local index, concentrated heavily in Leviticus and Numbers, the word is foundational to the OT's purity system, but it extends far beyond ritual categories into moral and covenantal ones. To be טָמֵא is to be in a state that excludes one from the holy — from the sanctuary, from the covenant assembly, from access to God's presence.
The purity system in Leviticus and Numbers identifies several categories of uncleanness: contact with death (a corpse, Numbers 19), bodily conditions (Leviticus 12-15), contact with certain animals (Leviticus 11), and sexual violation (Leviticus 18, 20). In each case, the uncleanness is not primarily moral guilt — it is a state that separates the person or object from the holy. The system of purification (washing, waiting, sacrifice) provides the way back. The theological logic is: the holy God is present in the sanctuary; what is unclean cannot approach.
Isaiah 6:5 uses the root in a different register: 'Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips (שְׂפָתַיִם טְמֵא), and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!' The word moves here from ritual category to moral and relational one: Isaiah's uncleanness is his speech — what he has said, the context of defilement in which his entire life has been embedded. The encounter with holiness (קָדוֹשׁ) reveals the depth of uncleanness (טָמֵא).
Ezekiel 36:17-25 moves the word into covenantal and eschatological territory: 'When the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it (טִמְּאוּ אֹתָה) by their ways and their deeds... therefore I poured out my wrath on them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it (טִמְּאוּהָ). I scattered them among the nations... I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean (טְהוֹרִים) from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.' God's promise to cleanse Israel uses the opposite of this word (clean, טָהוֹר) — but the defilement that the promise reverses is named with טָמֵא throughout.
Leviticus 15:31 is the pastoral summary statement of why the system matters: 'Thus you shall keep the people of Israel separate from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness by defiling my tabernacle that is in their midst.' The purpose of the purity system is not punishment — it is protection. The holy God is present in the tabernacle; uncleanness in the presence of holiness is catastrophic. The system exists to preserve the community's capacity to continue in the presence of the Holy One.
Sense to declare unclean, be unclean
Definition to declare unclean, be unclean
References 13:3, 13:8, 13:11, 13:15, 13:20, 13:22, 13:25, 13:27, 13:30, 13:44, 13:46, 13:51, 13:59
Why it matters The priest declares unclean when the condition meets the Lord's criteria.
Sense to shut up, isolate, confine
Definition to shut up, isolate, confine
References 13:4-5, 13:11, 13:21, 13:26, 13:31, 13:33, 13:50, 13:54
Why it matters The priest isolates uncertain cases for observation before final declaration.
Sense seven
Definition seven
References 13:4-5, 13:21, 13:26, 13:31, 13:33, 13:50, 13:54
Why it matters Seven-day periods structure isolation and reexamination.
Sense to spread
Definition to spread
References 13:5-8, 13:22-23, 13:27-28, 13:32, 13:35-36, 13:51, 13:53, 13:57
Why it matters Spread is a major sign of uncleanness in skin and garment cases.
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עָמַד (amad) is the Hebrew verb for standing — one of the most morally and liturgically charged postures in the OT. To amad is to take a position, to be in a place of service or accountability, to endure under pressure, or to maintain one's ground. The fundamental question the word raises is: where are you standing, before whom, and can you stand? Psalm 1:5 gives the judgment-day form of the question: 'The wicked will not stand (lo yaqumu) in the judgment' — the contrast is with the righteous who stand because they are on solid ground.
Psalm 1:1 uses amad in the negative: 'Blessed is the man who... does not stand (amad) in the way of sinners.' The three-stage downward movement of Psalm 1:1 — walking in the counsel of the wicked, standing in the way of sinners, sitting in the seat of scoffers — shows amad as the middle stage: what began as walking advice becomes a position taken, and the position becomes a permanent seat. The blessed person's amad is directed differently: they stand before YHWH (Gen 18:22, Moses and Joshua's posture), they stand in his sanctuary, they stand in his covenant.
Psalm 130:3 presses amad into the deepest question of human existence before God: 'If you, O YHWH, kept account of iniquities (avirot), O Lord, who could stand (ya'amod)?' The answer is that no one could amad before the holy God if he kept the full account. The only amad possible before YHWH is the amad of grace — 'but with you there is forgiveness (selichah), that you may be feared' (v. 4). The amad of verse 3 (the impossible standing-in-holiness) becomes possible in verse 4 (the standing-in-grace).
First Kings 10:8 gives amad its most honored application: 'Happy are your men, happy are these your servants, who continually stand (ha-omedim) before you and hear your wisdom.' The constant amad before Solomon — and by extension before YHWH — is the posture of the servant who listens. The Levites were designated to amad before YHWH (Deut 10:8, 18:5, 18:7) — their vocation was the standing-before that defined service.
For the preacher, עָמַד (amad) asks two questions of every person: can you stand before the holy God, and where are you standing in relation to his purposes?
Sense to stand, remain
Definition to stand, remain
References 13:5, 13:23, 13:28, 13:37
Why it matters A condition that remains unchanged may be declared clean depending on other signs.
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The Hebrew verb ṭāhēr carries a range that no single English word fully captures: it means to be pure, to be clean, to be declared clean, and to cleanse. It moves across three registers simultaneously — the physical (clean water, clean animals, clean skin), the ritual (the priestly adjudication of what is fit for approach to God), and the moral (the heart washed of its guilt and aligned with God's own holiness).
That triple range is not accidental. Israel's Levitical system used physical cleanness as a visible grammar for the invisible reality of standing before a holy God. When David cries to be purified with hyssop (Ps. 51:7), he is reaching for temple-ritual language to describe what he needs inwardly — not soap, but the mercy that only God can apply. The verb appears in the great Sinai narrative, in the prophetic vision of Ezekiel, and in the Levitical law of Yom Kippur, often converging on the same theological center: God himself is the one who makes clean.
No act of self-purification can replace divine cleansing; what ṭāhēr announces in its highest register is the divine act of cleansing that restores a person or a people to covenant standing. The New Testament hears this verb speaking through the rituals and finds its fulfillment in the blood of the new covenant and the sanctifying work of the Spirit.
Sense to declare clean, be clean
Definition to declare clean, be clean
References 13:6, 13:13, 13:17, 13:23, 13:28, 13:34, 13:37, 13:39, 13:40-41, 13:58-59
Why it matters The priest declares clean when the condition does not meet uncleanness criteria.
Sense to wash
Definition to wash
References 13:6, 13:34, 13:54, 13:58
Why it matters Washing garments or the person's clothes is part of clean status or garment restoration procedures.
Sense garment
Definition garment
References 13:6, 13:34, 13:45, 13:47-59
Why it matters Garments are washed in some personal cases and examined for contamination in the final section.
Sense rash, scab
Definition rash, scab
References 13:6-8
Why it matters A rash may be clean if it has not spread, but unclean if it spreads after being declared clean.
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שׁוּב is the great turning-word of the Hebrew Bible. At its most basic it describes physical motion — someone who goes away and comes back, an army that retreats, a hand that is withdrawn. But from that material root, Scripture draws something far more weighty: the movement of the whole person away from destruction and back toward God. In the prophets especially, שׁוּב becomes the central verb of appeal, the word God uses when He calls His people to abandon the path they are on and orient themselves toward Him again. It is not merely an emotional experience or a private spiritual adjustment. It is a reorientation — a turning of direction, will, loyalty, and practice.
Two dimensions of שׁוּב must be held together. The first is departure: genuine covenantal turning involves leaving something — an idol, a pattern of injustice, a posture of self-sufficiency, a covenant broken. The prophets are clear that returning to God means turning away from what is wrong. The second is arrival: the movement is not only away from sin but toward a Person. The prophets consistently frame this as return to YHWH, to His ways, to His covenant. שׁוּב is therefore not self-reform. It is relational re-entry — coming home to the God who has not moved.
What makes this word theologically irreplaceable is the exile context in which it burns most brightly. Israel's displacement from the land is never presented simply as a geopolitical catastrophe. It is the spatial consequence of a spiritual direction. The nation had turned away from God, and the curses of the covenant followed. But through the prophets, God calls שׁוּב — not simply as a demand, but as the announcement that return is still possible, that the door has not closed, that the God who judged is also the God who restores.
In pastoral use, שׁוּב must not be reduced to a single sermon moment or an altar-call transaction. Its roughly 1,073 occurrences span the full range of Israelite life — narrative, law, wisdom, prophecy, and prayer — which means the turn it names can be initial, repeated, communal, individual, urgent, and ongoing. The NT counterpart G3340 metanoeō carries forward this same dual structure: a change of mind that issues in a changed direction. To understand שׁוּב is to understand why biblical repentance is neither self-flagellation nor superficial remorse. It is the movement of a person, or a people, who turn from where they were headed and walk back toward the God who has been waiting.
Sense to return, turn back
Definition to return, turn back
References 13:7, 13:16, 13:55
Why it matters A person returns to the priest if the rash spreads, and the priest reexamines changed conditions.
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חַי is the Hebrew word the Old Testament reaches for when it wants to say that something — or Someone — pulses with genuine, active, self-sustaining life. Its range runs from the raw vitality of flesh still on the bone, to the freshness of flowing spring water, to the solemn declaration that the God of Israel is not an artifact but a living, acting, speaking, and intervening Person. The word does not simply mean 'not dead.' It asserts positive vitality, the quality of being animated from within.
When חַי is applied to Israel's God — as it regularly is — it carries a polemical edge the congregation must feel. Every surrounding culture stocked its shrines with images that could be decorated, carried, and consulted, but that could not speak, act, defend, or save. The God who spoke from Sinai (Deut 5:26), who stopped the Jordan (Josh 3:10), who answered in the lion's den (Dan 6:20) — this God is not managed. He is living. He is the source of life, not one more object within the created order seeking to be served.
The related image of 'living water' (מַיִם חַיִּים) presses the same truth into the domain of the human heart's thirst. Jeremiah grieves that Israel has traded the fountain of living water — the spring that never runs dry, the source that replenishes from within — for broken cisterns that hold nothing (Jer 2:13). The contrast is not merely metaphorical. It is a diagnosis: the people have exchanged a living God for constructed alternatives that cannot sustain life.
Pastorally, חַי calls the congregation to account about where they expect life to actually come from. The living God is not a background assumption or a theological category. He is the one who opens and closes wombs, who holds back rivers, who shuts the mouths of lions, and who alone satisfies the soul that thirsts.
Sense living, raw
Definition living, raw
References 13:10, 13:14-16
Why it matters Raw or living flesh in the diseased area indicates uncleanness.
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רַחֲמִים (the plural form of רַחַם) names the tender-mercy dimension of God's compassion, the inward mercy Scripture can describe with womb-rooted imagery. The womb-root is the theological anchor: just as a mother's love for her newborn is one of Scripture's strongest images of embodied care, YHWH's רַחֲמִים toward His people has that quality. Lam 3:22 — 'the steadfast love (חֶסֶד) of the Lord never ceases; his mercies (רַחֲמִים) never come to an end; they are new every morning' — places חֶסֶד and רַחֲמִים side by side as the two inseparable qualities of YHWH that survive the destruction of Jerusalem.
Where חֶסֶד is the covenant-faithfulness dimension, רַחֲמִים is the tenderness dimension. The morning renewal imagery is important: YHWH's compassion is not depleted by the night's sorrow; it is replenished with each new day.
Sense to spread wide, cover broadly
Definition to spread wide, cover broadly
References 13:12
Why it matters The disease spreading broadly over the body leads to a surprising clean declaration if the whole body turns white and raw flesh is absent.
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רֹאשׁ (rosh) means head in its most basic sense — the physical head of a person or animal — but the word operates across an enormous range of meanings in the OT. It means chief or leader (the head of a tribe, the head of a household), beginning or first (the head of a year, the head of a river), top or summit (the head of a mountain), and the primary or foremost (the head of the spices).
The theological depth of rosh lies in its application to authority, precedence, and origin. When the OT says someone is rosh over a group, it means they carry governing responsibility — they are accountable for the welfare of what is under them. The word therefore holds both honor and burden: the head leads, but the head is also the point through which blessing or judgment flows to the body.
In the NT, κεφαλή (kephalē) carries the primary semantic load of rosh in its Christological applications — Christ as head of the church (Eph 1:22, 4:15, 5:23; Col 1:18). But the OT background in rosh sharpens what headship means: not domination but constitutive authority, not lording it over but being the source from which life and direction flow. The congregation that understands rosh will understand headship as a theology of responsibility and origin, not merely of rank.
Sense head
Definition head
References 13:12, 13:29-30, 13:40-44
Why it matters The head is examined for scalp disease and baldness-related conditions.
Sense foot
Definition foot
References 13:12
Why it matters The whole-body spread is described from head to foot.
Cross-language bridge 1 link · View in lexicon
Sense boil, inflamed sore
Definition boil, inflamed sore
References 13:18-20, 13:23
Why it matters A healed boil may become the site of a suspicious condition requiring examination.
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רָפָא is the Hebrew verb for healing — to heal, to cure, to make whole. The divine name יְהוָה רֹפְאֶךָ (the Lord who heals you, Exod 15:26) is built on this word: healing is not just something God does but part of who he declares himself to be. The local Hebrew artifact indexes the verb at about 69 OT occurrences and operates across a range that English often separates: physical healing, the healing of wounds and diseases; emotional healing, the healing of grief and broken hearts; and the prophetic use of רָפָא for the spiritual restoration of Israel from the condition of apostasy and exile.
All three are present in the OT's use of the word, and the prophets in particular hold them together without separating them. Isaiah 53:5 applies רָפָא to the effect of the Servant's wounds: 'by his wounds we are healed.' The Servant's stripes address not merely the physical suffering of Israel but the comprehensive brokenness — moral, spiritual, physical, national — that the Servant's bearing of sin addresses.
Psalm 147:3 applies רָפָא to the emotional dimension: 'he heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds.' Jeremiah 30:17 and Hosea 6:1-2 use רָפָא for the national healing that God promises after judgment: 'I will restore health to you and heal your wounds, declares the Lord.' The range from Naaman's skin to Israel's broken-hearted to the nation's apostasy-wounds is the full semantic field of רָפָא.
The preacher who holds this word without flattening it to one dimension has access to the OT's holistic vision of what healing means when the Healer is God: it addresses the person in all their dimensions, and its scope extends to the community and even the land (2 Chr 7:14, 'I will heal their land').
Sense to heal
Definition to heal
References 13:18, 13:37
Why it matters A boil or scalp disease may be healed, but the priest must determine clean status.
Sense under, in place of, in the spot
Definition under, in place of, in the spot
References 13:19, 13:24, 13:28
Why it matters The affected spot arises in the place of a prior boil or burn.
Sense dull white spot, harmless rash
Definition dull white spot, harmless rash
References 13:39
Why it matters A harmless white rash that is declared clean.
Sense burn
Definition burn
References 13:24-25, 13:28
Why it matters A burn may become the site of suspicious discoloration requiring priestly examination.
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אֵשׁ (esh) is the Hebrew word for fire, currently indexed about 378 times in the local Hebrew index. Fire in the OT is not merely a physical phenomenon; it is consistently the medium of divine presence, divine judgment, and divine purification. The three functions are related: the same fire that represents God's presence burns up what does not belong before him, and refines what does. The theological trajectory of esh runs from the burning bush of Exodus 3 to the fire of Hebrews 12:29 ('our God is a consuming fire').
Deuteronomy 4:24 is the foundational theological statement: 'For the Lord your God is a consuming esh (esh okhelet), a jealous God.' The fire is not a secondary attribute of God; it is a description of what God himself is in relation to everything that opposes him and competes for loyalty to him. The jealousy and the consuming fire are the same thing: God's total commitment to his own glory and to his people's exclusive devotion means that whatever rivals him will be consumed. This is not cruelty; it is the natural result of the infinite standing next to the finite, the holy next to the unholy.
Exodus 3:2-4 gives fire its most memorable OT role: the burning bush. 'The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of esh (labbat-esh) out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.' The burning-but-not-consumed bush is the visual paradox of divine fire: the esh of God's presence is consuming, yet when God chooses to be present to his people, his fire does not destroy them. The bush burns but is not burned up — divine fire without destruction. This is the OT's picture of God's covenantal self-limitation: he is the consuming fire who chooses to be present without consuming.
First Kings 18:38 uses esh for the divine confirmation of Elijah's contest with the prophets of Baal: 'Then the fire (esh) of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.' The esh YHWH (fire of the Lord) falls from heaven and consumes not only the sacrifice but the altar, the stones, and the water — total consumption, leaving no ambiguity. The fire is the divine response to Elijah's prayer and the proof that YHWH, not Baal, is God.
For the preacher, אֵשׁ (esh) is the word that insists God cannot be approached casually: he is fire, and the approach to him requires the mediation of the sacrifice he provides.
Sense fire
Definition fire
References 13:24
Why it matters Fire is the cause of the burn considered in verses 24-28.
Sense scall, scale disease of head or beard
Definition scall, scale disease of head or beard
References 13:30-37
Why it matters A defiling condition of the scalp or beard area, diagnosed by depth, hair color, spread, and healing.
Sense yellow, golden
Definition yellow, golden
References 13:30, 13:32, 13:36
Why it matters Yellow thin hair in a sore on the head or chin can indicate a defiling scalp disease.
Sense thin, fine
Definition thin, fine
References 13:30
Why it matters Thin yellow hair is a diagnostic sign in scalp disease.
Sense to shave
Definition to shave
References 13:33
Why it matters The person shaves around the diseased area as part of the diagnostic process.
Sense bald
Definition bald
References 13:40-41
Why it matters Ordinary baldness does not make a person unclean.
Sense forehead-bald
Definition forehead-bald
References 13:41-43
Why it matters Forehead baldness is clean unless a suspicious reddish-white sore appears.
Sense reddish
Definition reddish
References 13:19, 13:24, 13:42-43, 13:49
Why it matters Reddish appearance is part of diagnostic description for skin conditions and garment contamination.
Sense to tear
Definition to tear
References 13:45
Why it matters The person with confirmed disease must wear torn clothes as a public sign of uncleanness.
Sense to let loose, leave unkempt
Definition to let loose, leave unkempt
References 13:45
Why it matters The unclean person must let the hair of the head be unkempt.
Sense to cover
Definition to cover
References 13:45
Why it matters The unclean person covers the lower part of the face.
Sense mustache, upper lip
Definition mustache, upper lip
References 13:45
Why it matters The lower face or upper lip is covered as part of the public sign of uncleanness.
Pastoral Entry
Pastoral Definition
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קָרָא is the great calling word of the Hebrew Bible — the verb that sets God in motion toward people and people in motion toward God. It carries a range of meanings that can seem almost too wide at first: to call out, to name, to summon, to proclaim, to invite, to cry aloud, to read. But behind this breadth lies a single animating reality: the power and intimacy of a voice that addresses by name, that establishes relationship by speaking, and that makes a claim on whoever is addressed.
When God calls, something is always at stake. He calls out the light and the darkness to receive their names. He calls Abraham out of Ur and gives him a new identity. He calls Moses from a burning bush and defines the rest of his life in that exchange. He calls Israel his son in the exodus and declares in the same breath that that calling came before all the people's straying. When the prophets use קָרָא for God's proclaiming, what is proclaimed always carries the weight of God's own authority and character — his mercy, his warning, his name.
When human beings call to God, קָרָא becomes the language of prayer and dependence. The Psalms return again and again to this word: calling on the name of the Lord is the posture of the righteous, the lifeline of the afflicted, the praise of the delivered. To call on God is not merely to petition him. It is to acknowledge his name, to declare who he is, and to place oneself in his presence as one who has no other resource.
The word also carries a distinct public, proclamatory sense. Prophets proclaim; heralds cry out; the reading of the law in the assembly is קָרָא. In these uses the word marks the moment when God's word enters public space and demands a response. Scripture read aloud, commandments declared, warnings issued, grace announced — all of this belongs to the range of קָרָא.
The naming dimension of קָרָא is not a peripheral use but a theological statement: to name something is to call it into its identity. God's naming of things and people is an act of sovereign love, establishing what something is and who someone belongs to. When God says 'I have called you by name; you are mine' (Isaiah 43:1), all three senses of the word converge at once — the personal address, the naming, and the act of claiming as his own.
Sense to call, cry out
Definition to call, cry out
References 13:45
Why it matters The unclean person must cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!'
Cross-language bridge 1 link · View in lexicon
Sense alone, isolated
Definition alone, isolated
References 13:46
Why it matters The person with confirmed disease lives alone outside the camp.
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יָשַׁב (yashav) is the Hebrew verb for dwelling, sitting, and remaining — and in its most theologically charged uses, it describes both YHWH enthroned above the cherubim and the psalmist's deepest desire: to yashav in the house of YHWH. The local Hebrew index currently counts about 1,092 H3427 uses. The verb's range from ordinary residence to divine enthronement to the covenant community's dwelling before YHWH makes it one of the OT's most theologically layered words.
Psalm 27:4 gives yashav its most concentrated human expression of desire: 'One thing I have asked of YHWH, that I will seek after: that I may yashav in the house of YHWH all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of YHWH and to inquire in his temple.' The entire psalm's bold confidence ('the Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?' v. 1) culminates in this: the singular desire to yashav before YHWH. Not victory, not vindication, not long life — yashav in the house of YHWH. The yashav David desires is not formal worship attendance but continual dwelling: all the days of my life.
Psalm 2:4 gives yashav its most majestic divine use: 'He who yashav in the heavens laughs; YHWH holds them in derision.' The one who yashav in the heavens — enthroned, sovereign, unmoved — laughs at the conspiring nations (v. 1-3). The divine yashav is the posture of absolute sovereignty: while the nations rage and plot, YHWH yashav. Nothing in the rebellion of the nations disturbs his enthronement.
Exodus 25:8 gives yashav its tabernacle-theology use: 'And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may yashav in their midst.' The entire tabernacle project is for one purpose: YHWH's yashav in the midst of his people. The sanctuary is the architectural provision for the divine yashav among Israel. The mishkan (H4908, the dwelling place, from shakan, to dwell) is the space where YHWH's yashav becomes tangible — and the shekinah glory that fills the completed tabernacle (Exod 40:34-35) is the visible sign that YHWH has indeed yashav there.
Psalm 132:13-14 gives yashav its Zion-election use: 'For YHWH has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling (moshav): this is my resting place forever; here I will yashav, for I have desired it.' YHWH's choice of Zion is a yashav-choice: he has looked at all the earth and chosen to yashav in this place. The yashav of YHWH in Zion is the covenantal center of David's theology: the God who yashav above the cherubim also yashav in Jerusalem.
Psalm 91:1 gives yashav its shelter-theology: 'He who yashav in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.' The yashav of the one who dwells in YHWH's shelter is the response to the divine yashav: YHWH yashav enthroned; those who yashav in him are sheltered. The yashav of the believer in YHWH is the human counterpart to YHWH's yashav in his people's midst.
For the preacher, יָשַׁב (yashav) gives the congregation the deepest aspiration: to yashav before YHWH, not merely to visit him. Psalm 27:4's single desire is the test of the congregation's spiritual appetite: is yashav in the house of YHWH the one thing they seek?
Sense to sit, remain, dwell
Definition to sit, remain, dwell
References 13:46
Why it matters The unclean person dwells outside the camp as long as the disease remains.
Sense outside
Definition outside
References 13:46
Why it matters Confirmed uncleanness results in life outside the camp.
Sense camp
Definition camp
References 13:46
Why it matters The camp is the holy community space that must be protected from defiling disease.
Sense wool
Definition wool
References 13:47-48, 13:52, 13:59
Why it matters Wool garments can be affected by contamination and require priestly examination.
Sense linen
Definition linen
References 13:47-48, 13:52, 13:59
Why it matters Linen garments can be affected by contamination and require priestly examination.
Sense warp
Definition warp
References 13:48-49, 13:51-53, 13:56-59
Why it matters The warp of woven material may be affected by contamination.
Sense woof, weft
Definition woof, weft
References 13:48-49, 13:51-53, 13:56-59
Why it matters The weft of woven material may be affected by contamination.
Sense greenish
Definition greenish
References 13:49
Why it matters Greenish contamination in fabric or leather is suspicious and must be examined.
Sense reddish
Definition reddish
References 13:49
Why it matters Reddish contamination in fabric or leather is suspicious and must be examined.
Sense appearance
Definition appearance
References 13:49, 13:55
Why it matters The appearance of contamination guides the priestly decision.
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Pastoral Definition
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שָׂרַף (saraph) is the Hebrew verb for burning — and in its theological range it covers sacrificial fire, divine judgment, the destruction of idols, and the flaming holiness before YHWH's throne. The word is currently indexed about 117 times in the local Hebrew index. At its center is a cluster of theological truths: fire from YHWH accepts the sacrifice (Lev 9:24), fire from YHWH judges the profane (Lev 10:2), fire consumes the enemies of YHWH's people (Num 11:1), and the seraphim (from saraph) burn before the throne of the Holy One (Isa 6:2).
Leviticus 9:24 gives saraph its sacrificial-acceptance form: 'And fire came out from before YHWH and consumed (saraph) the burnt offering and the fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.' The divine fire that consumes the first offering on the altar at the tabernacle's consecration is the sign of YHWH's acceptance of Israel's worship. The fire that saraph's the sacrifice is the fire of divine approval — it vindicates the offering and its offerers. The people's response is worship: shouting and falling on their faces.
Leviticus 10:2 gives saraph its judgment-against-the-profane form: 'And fire came out from before YHWH and consumed (saraph) them, and they died before YHWH.' Nadab and Abihu, who offered unauthorized fire before YHWH (esh zarah, strange fire, v. 1), are sarph'd by the fire of YHWH. The same fire that accepted the sacrifice (9:24) consumes the unauthorized priests (10:2). YHWH's fire does not discriminate: it consumes what is offered to it — whether the rightful sacrifice or the transgressing priests who approach with unauthorized fire.
Isaiah 6:2-3 gives saraph its throne-room form — through the seraphim: 'Above him stood the seraphim (seraphim, the burning ones, from saraph). Each had six wings... And one called to another and said: Holy, holy, holy is YHWH of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.' The seraphim — beings whose very name means burning ones — attend the throne of the thrice-holy YHWH. Their burning nature is appropriate to their assignment: only the burning can stand before the infinitely holy.
Numbers 11:1-3 gives saraph its wilderness-judgment use: 'And the people complained in the hearing of YHWH about their misfortunes, and when YHWH heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of YHWH burned among them and consumed some of the outlying parts of the camp.' The place was named Taberah (from saraph, burning) because YHWH's fire burned there. The saraph of judgment in the wilderness accompanies every major act of Israel's murmuring: the fire reveals that YHWH's holiness is not indifferent to covenant disloyalty.
Deuteronomy 12:3 gives saraph its idol-destruction mandate: 'you shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire (tisrefu ba'esh), and cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place.' The saraph of idols is the necessary corollary of the saraph of sacrifice: if YHWH's fire accepts his offerings, it must also destroy what competes with him. The purification of the land requires the saraph of everything that has been offered to false gods.
For the preacher, שָׂרַף (saraph) gives the congregation the dual character of the divine fire: the same holiness that accepts the sacrifice also judges the profane. YHWH is a consuming fire (Deut 4:24) — and approaching him requires the right fire, the right offering, the authorized approach.
Sense to burn
Definition to burn
References 13:52, 13:55, 13:57
Why it matters Contaminated garments or materials that remain or spread must be burned.
Sense malignant, corrosive contamination
Definition malignant, corrosive contamination
References 13:51-52
Why it matters A malignant contamination in fabric or leather must be burned.
Sense to turn aside, disappear, remove
Definition to turn aside, disappear, remove
References 13:55
Why it matters If contamination has not disappeared after washing, the material is unclean and burned.
Sense to tear out
Definition to tear out
References 13:56
Why it matters A contaminated portion may be torn out if the contamination has faded after washing.
Pastoral Entry
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עָשָׂה (asah) is the foundational Hebrew verb for doing and making — the local Hebrew index currently counts about 2,640 occurrences, and it carries the full weight of creation, covenant-keeping, and covenant-breaking from Genesis to Malachi. When God makes the world (Gen 1:7, 25), when Noah does everything YHWH commanded (Gen 6:22), when Israel is called to do what is good in YHWH's sight (Deut 6:18), and when YHWH does wonders (Ps 77:14) — all of it is asah.
Genesis 1-2 gives asah its creation-weight: the phrase 'and God made' (vayaas Elohim) punctuates the creation narrative as YHWH acts to bring into being what was not. The firmament, the animals, the luminaries, the entire order of creation — all are asah. Genesis 2:2 closes the creative work: 'on the seventh day God finished his work (melakah, H4399) that he had made (asah), and he rested.' The creation is YHWH's asah; the Sabbath is the cessation of that asah. The asah of Genesis 1 becomes the pattern for Israel's asah in Exodus 20:11: 'for in six days YHWH made (asah) the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.' Israel's Sabbath-keeping is a participation in the rhythm of the divine asah.
Genesis 6:22 gives asah its covenant-obedience form: 'Noah did (vayaas) according to all that God commanded him; so he did (ken asah).' Noah's asah is the OT prototype of covenant-keeping: when YHWH commands, the covenant partner does exactly as commanded. The double emphasis ('he did exactly so, he did') is the OT formula for unqualified obedience — the full correspondence between the divine command and the human asah.
Deuteronomy 6:18 gives asah its land-covenant use: 'And you shall do (asah) what is right and good in the sight of YHWH, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land.' The entire covenant obligation can be compressed into the asah: do what is right and good before YHWH. The covenant blessings (land, well-being, long life) flow from the asah; the curses flow from failing to asah.
Micah 6:8 gives asah its ethical-covenant peak: 'what does YHWH require of you but to asah justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?' The asah of Micah 6:8 is the first of three requirements — and it is the most concrete: justice (mishpat) must be done, not merely believed in or affirmed. The asah of justice is the embodied covenant life in the public square.
Psalm 118:23 gives asah its doxological use: 'This is YHWH's doing (asah); it is marvelous in our eyes.' The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone (v. 22) — and Israel's response is to name what YHWH has done: this is his asah. YHWH's asah includes not just creation and command but the unexpected reversals of redemptive history — the things that are marvelous (niflaot) precisely because no human asah could produce them.
For the preacher, עָשָׂה (asah) gives the congregation the active character of both divine and human covenant life. YHWH is a God who does; his people are called to do. The faith that does not asah is not the faith of Noah, Abraham, Israel, or David. And the highest human asah is still responsive: it is always 'according to all that YHWH commanded him, so he did.'
Sense to make, do
Definition to make, do
References 13:48, 13:51, 13:56, 13:59
Why it matters Used in relation to manufactured items and carrying out the law's procedures.
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תּוֹרָה is not a burden — at least, not in its own self-understanding. Ps 119:97 ('Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day') and Ps 1:2 ('his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night') describe תּוֹרָה as the object of love and delight, not merely obligation. The root meaning — direction, instruction, what is pointed out — frames it as the gift of a teacher to a student, not the edict of a tyrant to a subject.
YHWH gives תּוֹרָה as the covenant people's guide for life in the land; it is the shape of covenant loyalty. Deut 33:4 ('Moses commanded us a law') names it as Israel's possession — תּוֹרָה is part of what Israel is given when it is constituted as YHWH's people. The prophets' critique (Isa 1:10; Hos 4:6: 'my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me; and since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children') is not of תּוֹרָה itself but of Israel's abandonment of it.
The NT's relationship to תּוֹרָה is not simple abolition: Matt 5:17-18 ('I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them') is Jesus' direct address to the question, and the answer is fulfillment.
Sense instruction, law
Definition instruction, law
References 13:59
Why it matters The chapter concludes as instruction for defiling contamination in wool, linen, and leather articles.
Lexicon data: MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML (CC0) · Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (CC BY 4.0) · Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon (CC BY 4.0) · STEPBible Data (CC BY 4.0) · Full details
Hebrew Verb Morphology
| v.10 | H2015הָפַךְQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.11 | H3462יָשֵׁןNiphal · Participle |
| v.12 | H6524פָּרַחQal · Infinitive absoluteH6524פָּרַחQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.13 | H3680כָּסָהPiel · Perfect · IndicativeH2015הָפַךְQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.14 | H7200רָאָהNiphal · Infinitive constructH2930טָמֵאQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.16 | H7725שׁוּבQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.17 | H2015הָפַךְNiphal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.18 | H1961הָיָהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.2 | H1961הָיָהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.20 | H2015הָפַךְQal · Perfect · IndicativeH6524פָּרַחQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.22 | H6581פָּשָׂהQal · Infinitive absoluteH6581פָּשָׂהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.23 | H5975עָמַדQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussiveH6581פָּשָׂהQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.24 | H1961הָיָהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.25 | H2015הָפַךְNiphal · Perfect · IndicativeH6524פָּרַחQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.27 | H6581פָּשָׂהQal · Infinitive absoluteH6581פָּשָׂהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.28 | H5975עָמַדQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussiveH6581פָּשָׂהQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.29 | H1961הָיָהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.3 | H2015הָפַךְQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.31 | H7200רָאָהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.32 | H6581פָּשָׂהQal · Perfect · IndicativeH1961הָיָהQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.33 | H1548גָּלַחPiel · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.34 | H6581פָּשָׂהQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.35 | H6581פָּשָׂהQal · Infinitive absoluteH6581פָּשָׂהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.36 | H6581פָּשָׂהQal · Perfect · IndicativeH1239בָּקַרPiel · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.37 | H5975עָמַדQal · Perfect · IndicativeH6779צָמַחQal · Perfect · IndicativeH7495רָפָאNiphal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.38 | H1961הָיָהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.39 | H6524פָּרַחQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.4 | H2015הָפַךְQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.40 | H4803Niphal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.41 | H4803Niphal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.42 | H1961הָיָהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussiveH6524פָּרַחQal · Participle |
| v.44 | H6879צָרַעQal · Participle passiveH2930טָמֵאPiel · Infinitive absolute |
| v.45 | H1961הָיָהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussiveH6533פָּרַםQal · Participle passiveH1961הָיָהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussiveH6544פָּרַעQal · Participle passiveH5844עָטָהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussiveH7121קָרָאQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.46 | H2930טָמֵאQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussiveH3427יָשַׁבQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.47 | H1961הָיָהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.5 | H5975עָמַדQal · Perfect · IndicativeH6581פָּשָׂהQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.51 | H6581פָּשָׂהQal · Perfect · IndicativeH6213עָשָׂהNiphal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussiveH3992מָאַרHiphil · Participle |
| v.52 | H1961הָיָהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussiveH3992מָאַרHiphil · ParticipleH8313שָׂרַףNiphal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.53 | H7200רָאָהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussiveH6581פָּשָׂהQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.55 | H3526כָּבַסHithpolal · Infinitive constructH2015הָפַךְQal · Perfect · IndicativeH6581פָּשָׂהQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.56 | H7200רָאָהQal · Perfect · IndicativeH3544כֵּהֶהPiel · Perfect · IndicativeH3526כָּבַסHithpolal · Infinitive construct |
| v.57 | H7200רָאָהNiphal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussiveH6524פָּרַחQal · Participle |
| v.58 | H3526כָּבַסPiel · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.6 | H3544כֵּהֶהPiel · Perfect · IndicativeH6581פָּשָׂהQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.7 | H6581פָּשָׂהQal · Infinitive absoluteH6581פָּשָׂהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.8 | H6581פָּשָׂהQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.9 | H1961הָיָהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
Aspect in Hebrew is grammatical form, not tense. Perfect = completed action; Imperfect = incomplete/ongoing. Stem modifies action type (Qal=simple, Niphal=passive, Piel=intensive).
Morphology: OSHB WLC (Open Scriptures, CC BY 4.0) · STEPBible TEHMC (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0)
Theological Argument
Leviticus 13 teaches that holiness requires careful discernment, patient examination, and truthful declaration. The priest does not create uncleanness but identifies and declares it according to the Lord's instruction. The chapter refuses both carelessness and panic: not every rash is defiling, yet confirmed uncleanness cannot remain in the camp as though nothing has happened.
The community must preserve holiness without confusing every bodily condition with moral guilt. The chapter also shows that impurity can spread beyond the body into garments and household material, requiring cleansing or destruction.
From bodily examination to isolation, from reinspection to declaration, from confirmed uncleanness to life outside the camp, and from human skin to contaminated garments.
- 1.The LORD speaks to Moses and Aaron, placing these diagnostic laws under divine authority and priestly responsibility.
- 2.Suspicious skin conditions must be brought to the priest, showing that holiness discernment is not left to private opinion.
- 3.The priest examines visible evidence such as depth, hair color, raw flesh, spread, and change over time.
- 4.Uncertain cases require isolation, patience, and reexamination, showing that judgment must not be rushed.
- 5.Some conditions are declared clean, showing that visible abnormality is not automatically uncleanness.
- 6.Other conditions are declared unclean, showing that real defilement must be named truthfully.
- 7.Raw flesh is a serious sign of uncleanness, while complete whitening without raw flesh may be declared clean.
- 8.Boils and burns can produce scars that are clean or disease that is unclean, requiring careful distinction.
- 9.Scalp and beard conditions require additional diagnostic procedures, including shaving around the sore and reinspection.
- 10.Ordinary baldness is clean, preventing unnecessary stigma.
- 11.Confirmed defiling disease changes the person's public condition and location in relation to the camp.
- 12.The person declared unclean must signal uncleanness openly, protecting the community from defilement.
- 13.Garments and leather can also bear spreading contamination, requiring priestly examination and sometimes destruction.
- 14.The chapter trains Israel that holiness involves discernment, boundaries, patience, truthful declaration, and protection of the camp where the LORD dwells.
Theological Focus
- Clean and unclean
- Priestly examination
- Defiling skin disease
- Quarantine
- Discernment
- Public declaration
- Community holiness
- Outside the camp
- Garment contamination
- Spread of impurity
- Sanctuary boundaries
- Patient judgment
- Holiness and compassion
- Body and household life before God
- Holiness Requires Discernment
- Uncleanness Is Real but Not Always Moral Guilt
- The Priest Declares What Is Already Evident
- Waiting Can Be an Act of Holiness
- The Camp Must Be Protected Because the Lord Dwells Among Israel
- Uncleanness Can Spread
- Holiness Touches Material Life
- Truthful Declaration Protects Both the Individual and the Community
- Holiness
- Clean and Unclean
- Priestly Discernment
- Impurity
- Community Holiness
- Human Dignity Amid Uncleanness
- The Spread of Defilement
- Christ the Cleanser
- Christ Outside the Camp
Theological Themes
The priest must examine carefully before declaring a person or object clean or unclean. Holiness is not preserved by guesswork.
The chapter concerns ritual status, not automatic moral blame. A person may be unclean because of a condition without being personally wicked.
The priest does not cause uncleanness by speaking. He examines according to the Lord's criteria and declares the person's or object's status.
Seven-day isolation and reinspection show that the Lord builds patience into discernment. Hasty declarations can harm people and holiness.
The unclean person lives outside the camp, not because he or she is subhuman, but because the holy community must guard the dwelling place of the Lord.
The repeated attention to spreading disease or contamination shows that impurity can expand if not identified and addressed.
Garments, leather, woven material, and household goods are included. The Lord's holiness reaches beyond the altar into possessions and daily life.
Declaring clean protects the innocent from stigma; declaring unclean protects the community from defilement.
Covenant Significance
Leviticus 13 gives Israel a priestly process for guarding covenant holiness in cases of visible disease and material contamination. The chapter protects the camp, where the Lord dwells among His people, by requiring truthful distinction between clean and unclean. It also restrains unnecessary exclusion by requiring careful examination and reinspection before judgment.
Old Testament Connections
- The priests are entrusted with examining and declaring clean or unclean.
- The law follows Leviticus 10's mandate that priests distinguish clean from unclean.
- Visible disease is handled through priestly discernment, isolation, and reexamination.
- Not every abnormal skin condition results in uncleanness.
- Confirmed defiling disease results in life outside the camp.
- The person declared unclean must publicly signal the condition to protect the community.
- Garment contamination is treated seriously because impurity may affect material life.
- Burning contaminated garments protects the community from spreading impurity.
- The procedures show that the Lord's holiness governs both bodily and household realities.
- The chapter anticipates Leviticus 14, where cleansing and restoration procedures are provided for the person healed of defiling skin disease.
- Leviticus 10:10-11 gives the priestly mandate to distinguish clean from unclean and teach Israel.
- Leviticus 11 begins clean and unclean instruction with animals and carcass impurity.
- Leviticus 14 provides cleansing rites for defiling skin disease and contaminated houses.
- Numbers 5:1-4 commands those with defiling skin disease, discharge, or corpse impurity to be sent outside the camp.
- Numbers 12 narrates Miriam's temporary skin disease and exclusion outside the camp.
- 2 Kings 5 records Naaman's skin disease and cleansing, showing the longing for healing beyond priestly diagnosis.
- 2 Chronicles 26 records Uzziah's skin disease after priestly confrontation, connecting unclean condition with sanctuary violation.
Canonical Connections
Leviticus 13 fulfills the priestly responsibility given after Nadab and Abihu's death.
Leviticus 13 continues the clean and unclean instruction begun in Leviticus 11-12 and continued in Leviticus 14-15.
Leviticus 14 provides cleansing rites for the person healed of the disease diagnosed in Leviticus 13.
Numbers commands those with defiling skin disease and other uncleanness to be sent outside the camp.
Miriam's skin disease and seven-day exclusion display the social and ritual impact of such uncleanness.
Naaman's healing from skin disease shows the need for divine cleansing beyond priestly diagnosis.
Uzziah becomes diseased after presumptuously entering priestly sanctuary service, showing a case where disease is tied to judgment.
Jesus heals those with leprosy-like disease and commands them to show themselves to the priest.
Hebrews connects Christ's suffering outside the gate with sanctifying His people by His blood.
Cross References
Canon-Wide Connections
Cross-reference data: OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Gospel Clarity
Leviticus 13 clarifies the gospel by showing that uncleanness creates separation and that priestly diagnosis alone cannot heal. The unclean person outside the camp embodies the human need for cleansing, restoration, and access. Jesus enters this world of uncleanness, touches and cleanses lepers, and ultimately suffers outside the gate to make His people holy by His blood.
Gospel Guardrails
- Uncleanness affects access to the camp and holy things.
- Priests can examine and declare, but they cannot finally cleanse the heart or conquer death.
- The afflicted person's exclusion reveals the pain of separation and the need for restoration.
- Jesus cleanses lepers and restores them to community and worship.
- Jesus' holiness is not contaminated by uncleanness · His holiness overcomes uncleanness.
- Jesus honors the Mosaic priestly process while revealing Himself as greater than the priestly examiner.
- Christ suffers outside the gate, identifying with the place of reproach and exclusion.
- Christ's blood cleanses the conscience and opens access to God.
- The church must proclaim cleansing in Christ without shaming the afflicted.
- Do not preach skin disease as automatic proof of personal sin.
- Do not reduce Leviticus 13 to hygiene or public health only.
- Do not treat the priest as a savior · he diagnoses and declares, but Christ cleanses.
- Do not use uncleanness language to dehumanize the sick, disabled, poor, or socially excluded.
- Do not ignore the holiness concern of the chapter in the name of compassion. Biblical compassion does not abolish holiness.
- Do not ignore the compassion of Christ in the name of holiness. Biblical holiness does not despise the afflicted.
- Do not apply the outside-the-camp category directly to modern illness without moving through Christ's fulfillment.
- Do not separate Christ's cleansing miracles from the Levitical background that gives them depth.
Primary Emphasis
Leviticus 13 prepares for Christ by revealing the painful distance uncleanness creates and the need for a cleansing greater than priestly diagnosis. The priest can examine and declare, but he cannot ultimately heal. In the Gospels, Jesus touches and cleanses those with leprosy-like conditions, not becoming unclean Himself but making the unclean clean. He fulfills the priestly hope by providing true cleansing, restoration, and access to God.
Chapter Contribution
Leviticus 13 teaches that holiness requires careful discernment, patient examination, and truthful declaration. The priest does not create uncleanness but identifies and declares it according to the Lord's instruction. The chapter refuses both carelessness and panic: not every rash is defiling, yet confirmed uncleanness cannot remain in the camp as though nothing has happened.
The community must preserve holiness without confusing every bodily condition with moral guilt. The chapter also shows that impurity can spread beyond the body into garments and household material, requiring cleansing or destruction.
Motifs in This Chapter
Study holiness as divine character, covenant identity, and sanctified life across Scripture.
Study temple presence, worship, corruption, judgment, and renewal across Scripture.
Track judgment as covenant accountability, divine justice, and eschatological reckoning.
Doctrines in This Chapter
The priest must investigate thoroughly before declaring someone unclean.
The community shares responsibility for maintaining purity before the Lord.
Holiness requires accurate evaluation rather than superficial judgment.
Spiritual authority requires careful observation and patience before rendering judgment.
Spiritual authority requires careful observation before making a judgment affecting the community.
Some impurities may be cleansed, while others require total removal.
God's presence among His people requires that impurity be separated from the community.
God's people must remove sources of impurity from their environment.
The people of Israel must maintain purity boundaries in order to live before the holy presence of God.
Holiness is maintained through accurate and thoughtful distinctions, not rigid or careless judgments.
God's law protects individuals from unjust exclusion through careful evaluation.
God's law protects individuals from being wrongly classified as unclean.
God establishes structured practices to govern how impurity is handled within the community.
The priest is responsible for examining conditions and declaring ritual status within the community.
The priest is responsible for examining and declaring ritual status within the community.
Persistent impurity requires decisive removal to preserve holiness.
Impurity necessitates separation to protect the covenant community.
The covenant community must carefully distinguish between conditions that produce impurity and those that do not.
Doctrinal Weight
The chapter protects the holiness of the camp where the Lord dwells among His people.
The chapter gives detailed procedures for distinguishing clean and unclean skin conditions and contaminated materials.
Priests examine, isolate, reexamine, and declare clean or unclean according to the Lord's instruction.
Skin disease and garment contamination can create impurity affecting camp access and material life.
The unclean person lives outside the camp to protect the covenant community's holiness.
The chapter models careful, patient judgment rather than impulsive declaration.
The unclean person is excluded ritually but not stripped of image-bearing dignity or the hope of restoration.
The repeated concern with spread teaches that impurity must be recognized and addressed.
Christ fulfills the longing of Leviticus 13 by cleansing those whom priestly examination can only declare unclean.
The outside-the-camp condition points canonically toward Christ bearing reproach outside the gate to sanctify His people.
Reading Lenses
Theological exposition and fulfillment
- Leviticus 13 clarifies the gospel by showing that uncleanness creates separation and that priestly diagnosis alone cannot heal. The unclean person outside the camp embodies the human need for cleansing, restoration, and access. Jesus enters this world of uncleanness, touches and cleanses lepers, and ultimately suffers outside the gate to make His people holy by His blood.
Formation Focus
The holy Lord requires careful priestly discernment of clean and unclean conditions so that His dwelling among His people is guarded and restoration may be pursued rightly.
God's people must learn to guard holiness without cruelty, diagnose carefully without pride, and lead the afflicted toward the cleansing and restoration fulfilled in Christ.
Discernment, patience, truthfulness, compassion, reverence, and hope for restoration.
Practice Response
- Examine carefully before making judgments.
- Do not equate affliction automatically with personal guilt.
- Protect the spiritual health of the community without despising the vulnerable.
- Take spreading corruption seriously.
- Make room for waiting, reexamination, and humble discernment.
- Bring shame, exclusion, and uncleanness to Christ the cleanser.
- Pursue restoration wherever God provides cleansing.
Warnings and Misreadings
- The chapter warns against ignoring spreading uncleanness, rushing judgment without careful examination, or bringing defiling conditions into the camp as though holiness boundaries do not matter.
- Leviticus 13 is simply a medical dermatology manual. - The chapter has practical concern for visible conditions, but its purpose is ritual discernment of clean and unclean status in relation to Israel's holiness and camp life.
- Every person declared unclean must have committed a specific sin. - The chapter treats ritual uncleanness. It does not state that every skin condition is punishment for personal sin.
- The priest heals the disease. - The priest examines, isolates, reexamines, and declares. Healing itself is not presented as the priest's power in Leviticus 13.
- The unclean person is worthless or rejected by God as a person. - The exclusion protects the holiness of the camp. It does not erase the person's dignity as an image-bearer or covenant member needing restoration.
- Any unusual skin condition must be treated as defiling disease. - The chapter repeatedly distinguishes harmless or clean conditions from genuinely defiling ones.
- Isolation is merely punitive. - Isolation functions diagnostically and communally, allowing time to see whether the condition spreads while protecting the camp.
- The garment laws are superstitious nonsense. - The garment section extends the chapter's concern with spreading contamination into material life and household holiness.
- Christians should recreate these priestly diagnostic procedures in church life. - The Old Covenant purity system is fulfilled in Christ. The enduring instruction concerns holiness, discernment, truthful judgment, compassion, and Christ's cleansing power.
Discipleship Questions
- Do I make quick judgments where God calls for careful examination?
- Do I assume suffering or visible affliction always reveals personal guilt?
- Where do I need priestly discernment that distinguishes clean from unclean without cruelty?
- What does the repeated seven-day isolation teach about patience in judgment?
- How does the unclean person's life outside the camp help me understand alienation and longing for restoration?
- What does Jesus' cleansing of lepers reveal about His holiness and compassion?
- Where must the church protect holiness without despising people?
- How does Christ's suffering outside the gate transform the way I see the excluded?
Pastoral Applications
- Teach careful discernment instead of reactionary judgment.
- Separate ritual uncleanness from moral accusation.
- Protect the community without dehumanizing the afflicted.
- Preach the ache of exclusion and the hope of restoration.
- Point to Christ as cleanser, not merely examiner.
- Handle church discipline and restoration with sobriety.
- Avoid weaponizing impurity language.
- Use the garment section to teach that corruption spreads into ordinary life.
Pastoral Trajectories
The chapter moves suspicious conditions into careful priestly discernment.
Unclear cases are isolated for seven days before final declaration.
Clean or unclean declarations determine whether a person remains within ordinary community life or outside the camp.
The chapter widens from human skin to fabric and leather, showing that impurity can affect material life.
The priest declares; Christ cleanses and restores.
The unclean person's exclusion prepares the reader to see the wonder of Christ bearing reproach outside the gate to bring His people near.
Commentary (Keil & Delitzsch)
C.F. Keil & F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–91) — public domain
The Biblical World
Chapter At A Glance
The Lord commands Moses and Aaron to instruct the priests how to examine swelling, rash, bright spots, raw flesh, boils, burns, scalp disease, harmless rashes, baldness-related conditions, confirmed defiling disease, and contaminated fabric or leather, so that clean and unclean may be rightly distinguished.
Leviticus 13 gives Israel a priestly process for guarding covenant holiness in cases of visible disease and material contamination. The chapter protects the camp, where the Lord dwells among His people, by requiring truthful distinction between clean and unclean. It also restrains unnecessary exclusion by requiring careful examination and reinspection before judgment.
Leviticus 13 clarifies the gospel by showing that uncleanness creates separation and that priestly diagnosis alone cannot heal. The unclean person outside the camp embodies the human need for cleansing, restoration, and access. Jesus enters this world of uncleanness, touches and cleanses lepers, and ultimately suffers outside the gate to make His people holy by His blood.
Discernment, patience, truthfulness, compassion, reverence, and hope for restoration.
Focus Points
- Clean and unclean
- Priestly examination
- Defiling skin disease
- Quarantine
- Discernment
- Public declaration
- Community holiness
- Outside the camp
- Garment contamination
- Spread of impurity
- Sanctuary boundaries
- Patient judgment
- Holiness and compassion
- Body and household life before God
- Holiness Requires Discernment
- Uncleanness Is Real but Not Always Moral Guilt
- The Priest Declares What Is Already Evident
- Waiting Can Be an Act of Holiness
- The Camp Must Be Protected Because the Lord Dwells Among Israel
- Uncleanness Can Spread
- Holiness Touches Material Life
- Truthful Declaration Protects Both the Individual and the Community
- Holiness
- Priestly Discernment
- Impurity
- Human Dignity Amid Uncleanness
- The Spread of Defilement
- Christ the Cleanser
- Christ Outside the Camp
Cross References
You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the clean and the unclean, so that you may teach the Israelites all the statutes that the Lord has given them through Moses.”
Priestly discernment mandate
Then the Lord said to Moses, “This is the law for the one afflicted with a skin disease on the day of his cleansing, when he is brought to the priest. The priest is to go outside the camp to examine him, and if the skin disease of the afflicted person has healed,
Cleansing after skin disease
Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “When you enter the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as your possession, and I put a contamination of mildew into a house in that land, the owner of the house shall come and tell the priest, ‘Something like mildew has appeared in my house.’
House contamination parallel
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by a dead body. You must send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them.”
Outside the camp command
As the cloud lifted from above the Tent, suddenly Miriam became leprous, white as snow. Aaron turned toward her, saw that she was leprous, and said to Moses, “My lord, please do not hold against us this sin we have so foolishly committed. Please do not let her be like a stillborn infant whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”
Miriam's exclusion
Now Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man in his master’s sight and highly regarded, for through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. And he was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. At this time the Arameans had gone out in bands and had taken a young girl from the land of Israel, and she was serving Naaman’s wife....
Naaman cleansed
But when Uzziah became powerful, his arrogance led to his own destruction. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God, for he entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. Then Azariah the priest, along with eighty brave priests of the Lord, went in after him. They took their stand against King Uzziah and said, “Uzziah, you have no...
Uzziah's judgment
When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. Suddenly a leper came and knelt before Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Jesus cleanses a leper
Then a leper came to Jesus, begging on his knees: “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him, and the man was cleansed.
Jesus' compassion and cleansing
While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell facedown and begged Him, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him. “Do not tell anyone,” Jesus instructed him. “But...
Jesus and priestly testimony
While Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. As He entered one of the villages, He was met by ten lepers. They stood at a distance and raised their voices, shouting, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
Ten lepers cleansed
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that their bodies are clean, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, purify our consciences from works of death, so that we may serve the living God!
External cleansing and conscience cleansing
Although the high priest brings the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate, to sanctify the people by His own blood. Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore.
Outside the camp fulfilled in Christ
Lev 13:1 Leprosy. - The law for leprosy, the observance of which is urged upon the people again in Deu 24:8-9, treats, in the first place, of leprosy in men: ( a ) in its dangerous forms when appearing either on the skin (vv. 2-28), or on the head and beard (Lev 13:29-37); ( b ) in harmless forms (Lev 13:38 and Lev 13:39); and ( c ) when appearing on a bald head (Lev 13:40-44).
To this there are added instructions for the removal of the leper from the society of other men (Lev 13:45 and Lev 13:46). It treats, secondly , of leprosy in linen, woollen, and leather articles, and the way to treat them (Lev 13:47-59); thirdly , of the purification of persons recovered from leprosy (Lev 14:1-32); and fourthly , of leprosy in houses and the way to remove it (vv.
33-53). - The laws for leprosy in man relate exclusively to the so-called white leprosy, λεύκη λέπρα, lepra , which probably existed at that time in hither Asia alone, not only among the Israelites and Jews (Num 12:10. ; 2Sa 3:29; 2Ki 5:27; 2Ki 7:3; 2Ki 15:5; Mat 8:2-3; Mat 10:8; Mat 11:5; Mat 26:6, etc.) , but also among the Syrians (2Ki 5:1.) , and which is still found in that part of the world, most frequently in the countries of the Lebanon and Jordan and in the neighbourhood of Damascus, in which city there are three hospitals for lepers ( Seetzen , pp.
277, 278), and occasionally in Arabia ( Niebuhr, Arab. pp. 135ff.) and Egypt; though at the present time the pimply leprosy, lepra tuberosa s. articulorum (the leprosy of the joints), is more prevalent in the East, and frequently occurs in Egypt in the lower extremities in the form of elephantiasis. Of the white leprosy (called Lepra Mosaica ), which is still met with in Arabia sometimes, where it is called Baras , Trusen gives the following description: “Very frequently, even for years before the actual outbreak of the disease itself, white, yellowish spots are seen lying deep in the skin, particularly on the genitals, in the face, on the forehead, or in the joints.
They are without feeling, and sometimes cause the hair to assume the same colour as the spots. These spots afterwards pierce through the cellular tissue, and reach the muscles and bones. The hair becomes white and woolly, and at length falls off; hard gelatinous swellings are formed in the cellular tissue; the skin gets hard, rough, and seamy, lymph exudes from it, and forms large scabs, which fall off from time to time, and under these there are often offensive running sores.
The nails then swell, curl up, and fall off; entropium is formed, with bleeding gums, the nose stopped up, and a considerable flow of saliva... The senses become dull, the patient gets thin and weak, colliquative diarrhea sets in, and incessant thirst and burning fever terminate his sufferings” ( Krankheiten d. alten Hebr. p. 165).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:2-28 The symptoms of leprosy, whether proceeding directly from eruptions in the skin, or caused by a boil or burn . - Lev 13:2-8. The first case: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh (body) a raised spot or scab, or a bright spot. ” שׂאת, a lifting up (Gen 4:7, etc.) , signifies here an elevation of the skin in some part of the body, a raised spot like a pimple.
ספּחת, an eruption, scurf, or scab, from ספח to pour out, “a pouring out as it were from the flesh or skin” ( Knobel ). בּהרת .) le, from בּהר, in the Arabic and Chaldee to shine, is a bright swollen spot in the skin. If ether of these signs became “a spot of leprosy,” the person affected was to be brought to the priest, that he might examine the complaint. The term zaraath , from an Arabic word signifying to strike down or scourge, is applied to leprosy as a scourge of God, and in the case of men it always denotes the white leprosy, which the Arabs call baras .
נגע, a stroke (lit. , “stroke of leprosy”), is applied not only to the spot attacked by the leprosy, the leprous mole (Lev 13:3, Lev 13:29-32, Lev 13:42, etc.) , but to the persons and even to things affected with leprosy (Lev 13:4, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:50, Lev 13:55).
Lev 13:29-31 Leprosy upon the head or chin . - If the priest saw a mole upon the head or chin of a man or woman, the appearance of which was deeper than the skin, and on which the hair was yellow (צהב golden, reddish, fox-colour) and thin, he was to regard it as נתק. Leprosy on the head or chin is called נתק, probably from נתק to pluck or tear, from its plucking out the hair, or causing it to fall off; like κνήφη, the itch, from κνάω, to itch or scratch, and scabies , from scabere .
But if he did not observe these two symptoms, if there was no depression of the skin, and the hair was black and not yellow, he was to shut up the person affected for seven days. In בּו אין שׁחר (Lev 13:31) there is certainly an error of the text: either שׁחר must be retained and אין dropped, or שׁהר must be altered into צהב, according to Lev 13:37. The latter is probably the better of the two.
Lev 13:29-31 Leprosy upon the head or chin . - If the priest saw a mole upon the head or chin of a man or woman, the appearance of which was deeper than the skin, and on which the hair was yellow (צהב golden, reddish, fox-colour) and thin, he was to regard it as נתק. Leprosy on the head or chin is called נתק, probably from נתק to pluck or tear, from its plucking out the hair, or causing it to fall off; like κνήφη, the itch, from κνάω, to itch or scratch, and scabies , from scabere .
But if he did not observe these two symptoms, if there was no depression of the skin, and the hair was black and not yellow, he was to shut up the person affected for seven days. In בּו אין שׁחר (Lev 13:31) there is certainly an error of the text: either שׁחר must be retained and אין dropped, or שׁהר must be altered into צהב, according to Lev 13:37. The latter is probably the better of the two.
Lev 13:29-31 Leprosy upon the head or chin . - If the priest saw a mole upon the head or chin of a man or woman, the appearance of which was deeper than the skin, and on which the hair was yellow (צהב golden, reddish, fox-colour) and thin, he was to regard it as נתק. Leprosy on the head or chin is called נתק, probably from נתק to pluck or tear, from its plucking out the hair, or causing it to fall off; like κνήφη, the itch, from κνάω, to itch or scratch, and scabies , from scabere .
But if he did not observe these two symptoms, if there was no depression of the skin, and the hair was black and not yellow, he was to shut up the person affected for seven days. In בּו אין שׁחר (Lev 13:31) there is certainly an error of the text: either שׁחר must be retained and אין dropped, or שׁהר must be altered into צהב, according to Lev 13:37. The latter is probably the better of the two.
Lev 13:32-34 If the mole had not spread by that time, and the two signs mentioned were not discernible, the person affected was to shave himself, but not to shave the nethek, the eruption or scurfy place, and the priest was to shut him up for seven days more, and then to look whether any alteration had taken place; and if not, to pronounce him clean, whereupon he was to wash his clothes (see Lev 13:6).
Lev 13:32-34 If the mole had not spread by that time, and the two signs mentioned were not discernible, the person affected was to shave himself, but not to shave the nethek, the eruption or scurfy place, and the priest was to shut him up for seven days more, and then to look whether any alteration had taken place; and if not, to pronounce him clean, whereupon he was to wash his clothes (see Lev 13:6).
Lev 13:32-34 If the mole had not spread by that time, and the two signs mentioned were not discernible, the person affected was to shave himself, but not to shave the nethek, the eruption or scurfy place, and the priest was to shut him up for seven days more, and then to look whether any alteration had taken place; and if not, to pronounce him clean, whereupon he was to wash his clothes (see Lev 13:6).
Lev 13:35-36 But if the eruption spread even after his purification, the priest, on seeing this, was not to look for yellow hair. “He is unclean:” that is to say, he was to pronounce him unclean without searching for yellow hairs; the spread of the eruption was a sufficient proof of the leprosy.
Lev 13:35-36 But if the eruption spread even after his purification, the priest, on seeing this, was not to look for yellow hair. “He is unclean:” that is to say, he was to pronounce him unclean without searching for yellow hairs; the spread of the eruption was a sufficient proof of the leprosy.
Lev 13:37 But if, on the contrary, the eruption stood (see Lev 13:5), and black hair grew out of it, he was healed, and the person affected was to be declared clean.
Lev 13:38-39 Harmless leprosy . - This broke out upon the skin of the body in בּהרת plaits, “white rings.” If these were dull or a pale white, it was the harmless bohak , ἀλφός (lxx), which did not defile, and which even the Arabs, who still call it bahak , consider harmless. It is an eruption upon the skin, appearing in somewhat elevated spots or rings of inequal sizes and a pale white colour, which do not change the hair; it causes no inconvenience, and lasts from two months to two years.
Lev 13:38-39 Harmless leprosy . - This broke out upon the skin of the body in בּהרת plaits, “white rings.” If these were dull or a pale white, it was the harmless bohak , ἀλφός (lxx), which did not defile, and which even the Arabs, who still call it bahak , consider harmless. It is an eruption upon the skin, appearing in somewhat elevated spots or rings of inequal sizes and a pale white colour, which do not change the hair; it causes no inconvenience, and lasts from two months to two years.
Lev 13:40-41 The leprosy of bald heads . - קרח is a head bald behind; גּבּח, in front, “bald from the side, or edge of his face, i.e., from the forehead and temples.” Bald heads of both kinds were naturally clean.
Lev 13:40-41 The leprosy of bald heads . - קרח is a head bald behind; גּבּח, in front, “bald from the side, or edge of his face, i.e., from the forehead and temples.” Bald heads of both kinds were naturally clean.
Lev 13:42-44 But if a white reddish mole was formed upon the bald place before or behind, it was leprosy breaking out upon it, and was to be recognised by the fact that the rising of the mole had the appearance of leprosy on the skin of the body. In that case the person was unclean, and to be pronounced so by the priest. “On his head is his plague of leprosy,” i.e., he has it in his head.
Lev 13:42-44 But if a white reddish mole was formed upon the bald place before or behind, it was leprosy breaking out upon it, and was to be recognised by the fact that the rising of the mole had the appearance of leprosy on the skin of the body. In that case the person was unclean, and to be pronounced so by the priest. “On his head is his plague of leprosy,” i.e., he has it in his head.
Lev 13:42-44 But if a white reddish mole was formed upon the bald place before or behind, it was leprosy breaking out upon it, and was to be recognised by the fact that the rising of the mole had the appearance of leprosy on the skin of the body. In that case the person was unclean, and to be pronounced so by the priest. “On his head is his plague of leprosy,” i.e., he has it in his head.
Lev 13:45-46 With regard to the treatment of lepers , the lawgiver prescribed that they should wear mourning costume, rend their clothes, leave the hair of their head in disorder (see at Lev 10:6), keep the beard covered (Eze 24:17, Eze 24:22), and cry “Unclean, unclean,” that every one might avoid them for fear of being defiled (Lam 4:15); and as long as the disease lasted they were to dwell apart outside the camp (Num 5:2. , Num 12:10.
, cf. 2Ki 15:5; 2Ki 7:3), a rule which implies that the leper rendered others unclean by contact. From this the Rabbins taught, that by merely entering a house, a leper polluted everything within it ( Mishnah , Kelim i. 4; Negaim xiii. 11).
Lev 13:45-46 With regard to the treatment of lepers , the lawgiver prescribed that they should wear mourning costume, rend their clothes, leave the hair of their head in disorder (see at Lev 10:6), keep the beard covered (Eze 24:17, Eze 24:22), and cry “Unclean, unclean,” that every one might avoid them for fear of being defiled (Lam 4:15); and as long as the disease lasted they were to dwell apart outside the camp (Num 5:2. , Num 12:10.
, cf. 2Ki 15:5; 2Ki 7:3), a rule which implies that the leper rendered others unclean by contact. From this the Rabbins taught, that by merely entering a house, a leper polluted everything within it ( Mishnah , Kelim i. 4; Negaim xiii. 11).
Lev 13:47-52 Leprosy in linen, woollen, and leather fabrics and clothes . - The only wearing apparel mentioned in Lev 13:47 is either woollen or linen, as in Deu 22:11; Hos 2:7; Pro 31:13; and among the ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks these were the materials usually worn. In Lev 13:48. שׁתי and ערב, “the flax and the wool,” i. e. , for linen and woollen fabrics, are distinguished from clothes of wool or flax.
The rendering given to these words by the early translators is στήμων and κρόκη, stamen et subtegmen (lxx, Vulg.) , i. e. , warp and weft. The objection offered to this rendering, that warp and weft could not be kept so separate from one another, that the one could be touched and rendered leprous without the other, has been met by Gussetius by the simple but correct remark, that the reference is to the yarn prepared for the warp and weft, and not to the woven fabrics themselves.
So long as the yarn was not woven into a fabric, the warp-yarn and weft-yarn might very easily be separated and lie in different places, so that the one could be injured without the other. In this case the yarn intended for weaving is distinguished from the woven material, just as the leather is afterwards distinguished from leather-work (Lev 13:49). The signs of leprosy were, if the mole in the fabric was greenish or reddish.
In that case the priest was to shut up the thing affected with leprosy for seven days, and then examine it. If the mole had spread in the meantime, it was a “grievous leprosy. ” ממארת, from מאר irritavit, recruduit ( vulnus ), is to be explained, as it is by Bochart , as signifying lepra exasperata . הנּגע ממארת making the mole bad or angry; not, as Gesenius maintains, from מאר = מרר acerbum faciens , i.
e. , dolorem acerbum excitans , which would not apply to leprosy in fabrics and houses (Lev 14:44), and is not required by Eze 28:24. All such fabrics were to be burned as unclean.
Lev 13:47-52 Leprosy in linen, woollen, and leather fabrics and clothes . - The only wearing apparel mentioned in Lev 13:47 is either woollen or linen, as in Deu 22:11; Hos 2:7; Pro 31:13; and among the ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks these were the materials usually worn. In Lev 13:48. שׁתי and ערב, “the flax and the wool,” i. e. , for linen and woollen fabrics, are distinguished from clothes of wool or flax.
The rendering given to these words by the early translators is στήμων and κρόκη, stamen et subtegmen (lxx, Vulg.) , i. e. , warp and weft. The objection offered to this rendering, that warp and weft could not be kept so separate from one another, that the one could be touched and rendered leprous without the other, has been met by Gussetius by the simple but correct remark, that the reference is to the yarn prepared for the warp and weft, and not to the woven fabrics themselves.
So long as the yarn was not woven into a fabric, the warp-yarn and weft-yarn might very easily be separated and lie in different places, so that the one could be injured without the other. In this case the yarn intended for weaving is distinguished from the woven material, just as the leather is afterwards distinguished from leather-work (Lev 13:49). The signs of leprosy were, if the mole in the fabric was greenish or reddish.
In that case the priest was to shut up the thing affected with leprosy for seven days, and then examine it. If the mole had spread in the meantime, it was a “grievous leprosy. ” ממארת, from מאר irritavit, recruduit ( vulnus ), is to be explained, as it is by Bochart , as signifying lepra exasperata . הנּגע ממארת making the mole bad or angry; not, as Gesenius maintains, from מאר = מרר acerbum faciens , i.
e. , dolorem acerbum excitans , which would not apply to leprosy in fabrics and houses (Lev 14:44), and is not required by Eze 28:24. All such fabrics were to be burned as unclean.
Lev 13:47-52 Leprosy in linen, woollen, and leather fabrics and clothes . - The only wearing apparel mentioned in Lev 13:47 is either woollen or linen, as in Deu 22:11; Hos 2:7; Pro 31:13; and among the ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks these were the materials usually worn. In Lev 13:48. שׁתי and ערב, “the flax and the wool,” i. e. , for linen and woollen fabrics, are distinguished from clothes of wool or flax.
The rendering given to these words by the early translators is στήμων and κρόκη, stamen et subtegmen (lxx, Vulg.) , i. e. , warp and weft. The objection offered to this rendering, that warp and weft could not be kept so separate from one another, that the one could be touched and rendered leprous without the other, has been met by Gussetius by the simple but correct remark, that the reference is to the yarn prepared for the warp and weft, and not to the woven fabrics themselves.
So long as the yarn was not woven into a fabric, the warp-yarn and weft-yarn might very easily be separated and lie in different places, so that the one could be injured without the other. In this case the yarn intended for weaving is distinguished from the woven material, just as the leather is afterwards distinguished from leather-work (Lev 13:49). The signs of leprosy were, if the mole in the fabric was greenish or reddish.
In that case the priest was to shut up the thing affected with leprosy for seven days, and then examine it. If the mole had spread in the meantime, it was a “grievous leprosy. ” ממארת, from מאר irritavit, recruduit ( vulnus ), is to be explained, as it is by Bochart , as signifying lepra exasperata . הנּגע ממארת making the mole bad or angry; not, as Gesenius maintains, from מאר = מרר acerbum faciens , i.
e. , dolorem acerbum excitans , which would not apply to leprosy in fabrics and houses (Lev 14:44), and is not required by Eze 28:24. All such fabrics were to be burned as unclean.
Lev 13:47-52 Leprosy in linen, woollen, and leather fabrics and clothes . - The only wearing apparel mentioned in Lev 13:47 is either woollen or linen, as in Deu 22:11; Hos 2:7; Pro 31:13; and among the ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks these were the materials usually worn. In Lev 13:48. שׁתי and ערב, “the flax and the wool,” i. e. , for linen and woollen fabrics, are distinguished from clothes of wool or flax.
The rendering given to these words by the early translators is στήμων and κρόκη, stamen et subtegmen (lxx, Vulg.) , i. e. , warp and weft. The objection offered to this rendering, that warp and weft could not be kept so separate from one another, that the one could be touched and rendered leprous without the other, has been met by Gussetius by the simple but correct remark, that the reference is to the yarn prepared for the warp and weft, and not to the woven fabrics themselves.
So long as the yarn was not woven into a fabric, the warp-yarn and weft-yarn might very easily be separated and lie in different places, so that the one could be injured without the other. In this case the yarn intended for weaving is distinguished from the woven material, just as the leather is afterwards distinguished from leather-work (Lev 13:49). The signs of leprosy were, if the mole in the fabric was greenish or reddish.
In that case the priest was to shut up the thing affected with leprosy for seven days, and then examine it. If the mole had spread in the meantime, it was a “grievous leprosy. ” ממארת, from מאר irritavit, recruduit ( vulnus ), is to be explained, as it is by Bochart , as signifying lepra exasperata . הנּגע ממארת making the mole bad or angry; not, as Gesenius maintains, from מאר = מרר acerbum faciens , i.
e. , dolorem acerbum excitans , which would not apply to leprosy in fabrics and houses (Lev 14:44), and is not required by Eze 28:24. All such fabrics were to be burned as unclean.
Lev 13:47-52 Leprosy in linen, woollen, and leather fabrics and clothes . - The only wearing apparel mentioned in Lev 13:47 is either woollen or linen, as in Deu 22:11; Hos 2:7; Pro 31:13; and among the ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks these were the materials usually worn. In Lev 13:48. שׁתי and ערב, “the flax and the wool,” i. e. , for linen and woollen fabrics, are distinguished from clothes of wool or flax.
The rendering given to these words by the early translators is στήμων and κρόκη, stamen et subtegmen (lxx, Vulg.) , i. e. , warp and weft. The objection offered to this rendering, that warp and weft could not be kept so separate from one another, that the one could be touched and rendered leprous without the other, has been met by Gussetius by the simple but correct remark, that the reference is to the yarn prepared for the warp and weft, and not to the woven fabrics themselves.
So long as the yarn was not woven into a fabric, the warp-yarn and weft-yarn might very easily be separated and lie in different places, so that the one could be injured without the other. In this case the yarn intended for weaving is distinguished from the woven material, just as the leather is afterwards distinguished from leather-work (Lev 13:49). The signs of leprosy were, if the mole in the fabric was greenish or reddish.
In that case the priest was to shut up the thing affected with leprosy for seven days, and then examine it. If the mole had spread in the meantime, it was a “grievous leprosy. ” ממארת, from מאר irritavit, recruduit ( vulnus ), is to be explained, as it is by Bochart , as signifying lepra exasperata . הנּגע ממארת making the mole bad or angry; not, as Gesenius maintains, from מאר = מרר acerbum faciens , i.
e. , dolorem acerbum excitans , which would not apply to leprosy in fabrics and houses (Lev 14:44), and is not required by Eze 28:24. All such fabrics were to be burned as unclean.
Lev 13:47-52 Leprosy in linen, woollen, and leather fabrics and clothes . - The only wearing apparel mentioned in Lev 13:47 is either woollen or linen, as in Deu 22:11; Hos 2:7; Pro 31:13; and among the ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks these were the materials usually worn. In Lev 13:48. שׁתי and ערב, “the flax and the wool,” i. e. , for linen and woollen fabrics, are distinguished from clothes of wool or flax.
The rendering given to these words by the early translators is στήμων and κρόκη, stamen et subtegmen (lxx, Vulg.) , i. e. , warp and weft. The objection offered to this rendering, that warp and weft could not be kept so separate from one another, that the one could be touched and rendered leprous without the other, has been met by Gussetius by the simple but correct remark, that the reference is to the yarn prepared for the warp and weft, and not to the woven fabrics themselves.
So long as the yarn was not woven into a fabric, the warp-yarn and weft-yarn might very easily be separated and lie in different places, so that the one could be injured without the other. In this case the yarn intended for weaving is distinguished from the woven material, just as the leather is afterwards distinguished from leather-work (Lev 13:49). The signs of leprosy were, if the mole in the fabric was greenish or reddish.
In that case the priest was to shut up the thing affected with leprosy for seven days, and then examine it. If the mole had spread in the meantime, it was a “grievous leprosy. ” ממארת, from מאר irritavit, recruduit ( vulnus ), is to be explained, as it is by Bochart , as signifying lepra exasperata . הנּגע ממארת making the mole bad or angry; not, as Gesenius maintains, from מאר = מרר acerbum faciens , i.
e. , dolorem acerbum excitans , which would not apply to leprosy in fabrics and houses (Lev 14:44), and is not required by Eze 28:24. All such fabrics were to be burned as unclean.
Lev 13:53-55 If the mole had not spread during the seven days, the priest was to cause the fabric in which the mole appeared to be washed, and then shut it up for seven days more. If the mole did not alter its appearance after being washed, even though it had not spread, the fabric was unclean, and was therefore to be burned. “It is a corroding in the back and front” (of the fabric of leather).
פּחתת, from פּחת, in Syriac fodit , from which comes פּחת a pit, lit. , a digging: here a corroding depression. קרחת a bald place in the front or right side, גּבּחת a bald place in the back or left side of the fabric or leather.
Lev 13:53-55 If the mole had not spread during the seven days, the priest was to cause the fabric in which the mole appeared to be washed, and then shut it up for seven days more. If the mole did not alter its appearance after being washed, even though it had not spread, the fabric was unclean, and was therefore to be burned. “It is a corroding in the back and front” (of the fabric of leather).
פּחתת, from פּחת, in Syriac fodit , from which comes פּחת a pit, lit. , a digging: here a corroding depression. קרחת a bald place in the front or right side, גּבּחת a bald place in the back or left side of the fabric or leather.
Lev 13:53-55 If the mole had not spread during the seven days, the priest was to cause the fabric in which the mole appeared to be washed, and then shut it up for seven days more. If the mole did not alter its appearance after being washed, even though it had not spread, the fabric was unclean, and was therefore to be burned. “It is a corroding in the back and front” (of the fabric of leather).
פּחתת, from פּחת, in Syriac fodit , from which comes פּחת a pit, lit. , a digging: here a corroding depression. קרחת a bald place in the front or right side, גּבּחת a bald place in the back or left side of the fabric or leather.
Lev 13:56 But if the mole had turned pale by the seventh day after the washing, it (the place of the mole) was to be separated (torn off) from the clothes, leather or yarn, and then (as is added afterwards in Lev 13:58) the garment or fabric from which the mole had disappeared was to be washed a second time, and would then be clean.
Lev 13:57-59 But if the mole appeared again in any such garment or cloth, i. e. , if it appeared again after this, it was a leprosy bursting forth afresh, and the thing affected with it was to be burned. Leprosy in linen and woollen fabrics or clothes, and in leather, consisted in all probability in nothing but so-called mildew, which commonly arises from damp and want of air, and consists, in the case of linen, of round, partially coloured spots, which spread, and gradually eat up the fabric, until it falls to pieces like mould.
In leather the mildew consists most strictly of “holes eaten in,” and is of a “greenish, reddish, or whitish colour, according to the species of the delicate cryptogami by which it has been formed. ”
Lev 13:57-59 But if the mole appeared again in any such garment or cloth, i. e. , if it appeared again after this, it was a leprosy bursting forth afresh, and the thing affected with it was to be burned. Leprosy in linen and woollen fabrics or clothes, and in leather, consisted in all probability in nothing but so-called mildew, which commonly arises from damp and want of air, and consists, in the case of linen, of round, partially coloured spots, which spread, and gradually eat up the fabric, until it falls to pieces like mould.
In leather the mildew consists most strictly of “holes eaten in,” and is of a “greenish, reddish, or whitish colour, according to the species of the delicate cryptogami by which it has been formed. ”