נֶגַע

H5061, neḡaʿ, is a Hebrew noun for a blow, affliction, or observable affected condition. The object and passage determine what kind of condition is in view. Genesis can use it for a plague or severe affliction. Deuteronomy can use it in legal language concerning an assault. Leviticus applies it to possible conditions on human skin and also to contamination found in fabric or houses.

Those Levitical passages prescribe careful examination and repeatedly preserve uncertainty before a declaration is made. The term is therefore broader than any one modern disease name and should not automatically be translated into a specific diagnosis. It also does not make every afflicted person morally blameworthy. Clean and unclean classifications belong to the covenantal procedures described in the passage; they are not measures of a person's dignity.

Leviticus 13:2 begins with a condition that may be an infectious skin disease and requires examination. The same chapter applies H5061 to fabric contamination, demonstrating that one human diagnosis cannot govern the range. Deuteronomy 17 uses the noun for assaults in a difficult legal case, while Genesis 12 explicitly identifies plagues and their narrative cause.

Isaiah 53 uses stricken language for the servant and must remain inside that prophetic argument. Faithful interpretation uses passage-specific language, distinguishes observation from diagnosis, preserves uncertainty, and refuses to turn ancient purity procedures into stigma or unsupported modern medical policy.

H5061 ranges across a blow, assault, plague, affliction, possible skin condition, and contamination affecting fabric or a house. Levitical examination, legal context, narrative explanation, and prophetic poetry must remain distinct.