Leviticus 13
Leviticus 13:1 Yahveh spoke to Moses and Aaron, and this is what he said,
Leviticus 13:2 “When a human has on the outer layer of his skin a swelling or an eruption or a spot, and it turns into a case of skin disease[1] on the outer layer of his skin, then he will be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests,
Leviticus 13:3 and the priest will examine the diseased area on the outer layer of his skin. And if the hair in the diseased area has turned white and the disease appears to be deeper than the outer layer of his skin, it is a case of leprous disease. When the priest has examined him, he will pronounce him contaminated.
Leviticus 13:4 But if the spot is white in the outer layer of his skin and appears no deeper than the skin, and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest will isolate the diseased person for seven days.
Leviticus 13:5 And the priest will examine him on the seventh day, and if he notices in his eyes the disease is checked and the disease has not spread in the skin, then the priest will shut him up for another seven days.
Leviticus 13:6 And the priest will examine him again on the seventh day, and if he notices the diseased area has faded and the disease has not spread in the skin, then the priest will pronounce him clean; it is only a scab. And he will wash his clothes and be clean.
Leviticus 13:7 But if the scab spreads in the skin, after he has shown himself to the priest for his cleansing, he will appear again before the priest.
Leviticus 13:8 And the priest will look, and if he notices the scab has spread in the skin, then the priest will pronounce him contaminated; it is a leprous disease.
Leviticus 13:9 “When a human is afflicted with a leprous disease, he will be brought to the priest,
Leviticus 13:10 and the priest will look. And if he notices there is a white swelling in the skin that has turned the hair white, and there is raw flesh in the swelling,
Leviticus 13:11 it is a chronic leprous disease in the outer layer of his skin, and the priest will pronounce him contaminated. He will not isolate him, because he is contaminated.
Leviticus 13:12 And if the leprous disease breaks out in the skin, so that the leprous disease covers all the skin of the diseased person from head to foot, so far as the priest can see,
Leviticus 13:13 then the priest will look, and if he notices the leprous disease has covered all his body, he will pronounce him clean of the disease; it has all turned white, and he is pure.
Leviticus 13:14 But when raw flesh appears on him, he will be contaminated.
Leviticus 13:15 And the priest will examine the raw flesh and pronounce him contaminated. Raw flesh is contaminated, because it is a leprous disease.
Leviticus 13:16 But if the raw flesh recovers and turns white again, then he will come to the priest,
Leviticus 13:17 and the priest will examine him, and if he notices the disease has turned white, then the priest will pronounce the diseased person clean; he is pure.
Leviticus 13:18 “If there is in the outer layer of someone’s skin a boil and it heals,
Leviticus 13:19 and in the place of the boil there comes a white swelling or a reddish-white spot, then it will be shown to the priest.
Leviticus 13:20 And the priest will look, and if he notices that it appears deeper than the skin and its hair has turned white, then the priest will pronounce him contaminated. It is a case of leprous disease that has broken out in the boil.
Leviticus 13:21 But if the priest examines it and notices that there is no white hair in it and it is not deeper than the skin, but has faded, then the priest will shut him up seven days.
Leviticus 13:22 And if it spreads in the skin, then the priest will pronounce him contaminated; it is a disease.
Leviticus 13:23 But if the spot remains in one place and does not spread, it is the scar of the boil, and the priest will pronounce him clean.
Leviticus 13:24 “Or, when a body has a burn on its skin and the raw flesh of the burn becomes a spot, reddish-white or white,
Leviticus 13:25 the priest will examine it, and if he notices that the hair in the spot has turned white and it appears deeper than the skin, then it is a leprous disease. It has broken out in the burn, and the priest will pronounce him contaminated; it is a case of leprous disease.
Leviticus 13:26 But if the priest examines it and notices that there is no white hair in the spot and it is no deeper than the skin, but has faded, the priest will isolate him seven days,
Leviticus 13:27 and the priest will examine him the seventh day. If it is spreading in the skin, then the priest will pronounce him contaminated; it is a case of leprous disease.
Leviticus 13:28 But if the spot remains in one place and does not spread in the skin, but has faded, it is a swelling from the burn, and the priest will pronounce him clean, because it is the scar of the burn.
Leviticus 13:29 “When a man or woman has a disease on the head or the beard,
Leviticus 13:30 the priest will examine the disease. And if he notices that it appears deeper than the skin, and the hair in it is yellow and thin, then the priest will pronounce him contaminated. It is an itch, a leprous disease of the head or the beard.
Leviticus 13:31 And if the priest examines the itching disease and notices that it appears no deeper than the skin and there is no black hair in it, then the priest will isolate the person with the itching disease for seven days,
Leviticus 13:32 and on the seventh day the priest will examine the disease. If he notices that the itch has not spread, and there is in it no yellow hair, and the itch appears to be no deeper than the skin,
Leviticus 13:33 then he will shave himself, but the itch he will not shave; and the priest will isolate the person with the itching disease for another seven days.
Leviticus 13:34 And on the seventh day the priest will examine the itch, and if he notices that the itch has not spread in the skin and it appears to be no deeper than the skin, then the priest will pronounce him clean. And he will wash his clothes and be clean.
Leviticus 13:35 But if the itch spreads in the skin after his cleansing,
Leviticus 13:36 then the priest will examine him, and if he notices that the itch has spread in the skin, the priest need not seek for the yellow hair; he is contaminated.
Leviticus 13:37 But if in his eyes the itch is unchanged and black hair has grown in it, the itch is healed and he is pure, and the priest will pronounce him clean.
Leviticus 13:38 “When a man or a woman has spots on the outer layer of their skin, white spots,
Leviticus 13:39 the priest will look, and if he notices that the spots on the outer layer of their skin are of a dull white, it is leukoderma that has broken out in the skin; he is pure.
Leviticus 13:40 “If a man’s hair falls out from his head, he is bald; he is pure.
Leviticus 13:41 If he loses the hair from his face and temples, he has baldness of the forehead but he is pure.
Leviticus 13:42 But if there is on the bald head or the bald forehead a reddish-white diseased area, it is a leprous disease breaking out on his bald head or his bald forehead.
Leviticus 13:43 Then the priest will examine him, and if he notices that the diseased swelling is reddish white on his bald head or on his bald forehead, like the appearance of leprous disease in the outer layer of his skin,
Leviticus 13:44 he is a leprous man, he is contaminated. The priest must pronounce him contaminated; his disease is on his head.
Leviticus 13:45 “The leprous person who has the disease will wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he will cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘contaminated, contaminated.’
Leviticus 13:46 He will stay contaminated as long as he has the disease. He is contaminated. He will stay alone. His dwelling will be outside the camp.
Leviticus 13:47 “When there is a case of leprous disease in clothes, whether woolen or linen clothes,
Leviticus 13:48 in warp or woof of linen or wool, or in a skin or in anything made of skin,
Leviticus 13:49 if the disease is greenish or reddish in the clothes, or in the skin or in the warp or the woof or in any container made of skin, it is a case of leprous disease, and it will be shown to the priest.
Leviticus 13:50 And the priest will examine the disease and isolate that which has the disease for seven days.
Leviticus 13:51 Then he will examine the disease on the seventh day. If the disease has spread in the clothes, in the warp or the woof, or in the skin, whatever be the use of the skin, the disease is a persistent leprous disease; it is contaminated.
Leviticus 13:52 And he will burn the clothes, or the warp or the woof, the wool or the linen, or any container made of skin that is diseased, because it is a persistent leprous disease. It will be burned in the fire.
Leviticus 13:53 “And if the priest examines, and if he notices that the disease has not spread in the clothes, in the warp or the woof or in any container made of skin,
Leviticus 13:54 then the priest will command that they wash the thing in which is the disease, and he will isolate it for another seven days.
Leviticus 13:55 And the priest will examine the diseased thing after it has been washed. And if he notices that the appearance of the diseased area has not changed, though the disease has not spread, it is contaminated. You will burn it in the fire, whether the rot is on the back or on the front.
Leviticus 13:56 “But if the priest examines, and if the diseased area has faded after it has been washed, he will tear it out of the clothes or the skin or the warp or the woof.
Leviticus 13:57 Then if it appears again in the clothes, in the warp or the woof, or in any container made of skin, it is spreading. You will burn with fire whatever has the disease.
Leviticus 13:58 But the clothes, or the warp or the woof, or any container made of skin from which the disease departs when you have washed it, will then be washed a second time, and be clean.”
Leviticus 13:59 This is the instruction for a case of leprous disease in wool or linen clothing, either in the warp or the woof, or in any container made of skin, to determine whether it is clean or contaminated.
[1] צָרָעַת = skin disease (not leprosy. HALOT 8200). Leviticus 13:2, 3, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 20, 25, 27, 30, 42, 43, 47, 49, 51, 52, 59; 14:3, 7, 32, 34, 44, 54, 55, 57.
Leviticus 13 quotes:
“These four appearances—swellings, eruptions, spots, or itch—are characteristic of many difterent skin diseases, however, and cannot be regarded as four different manifestations of a single disease, and especially not leprosy.”
Shellberg, Pamela. Cleansed Lepers, Cleansed Hearts : Purity and Healing in Luke-Acts. Fortress Press, 2015. p. 35.
“Now, the illnesses discernible in Leviticus 13 in no way correspond to leprosy. The identification of leprosy with the skin manifestations described in this chapter, advocated especially by Christians, skin manifestations caused by God and thus prompting exclusion from any fellowship with him and human beings in general, was thus a horrible mistake, quite apart from the fact that Jesus himself certainly had no fear of those sick with leprosy (cf. Mark 1:40f.; Matt. 10:7f.). Indeed, all the maladies classified in Leviticus 13 as contaminating are curable (cf. Lev. 13:37; 14:2f.), whereas in contrast, true leprosy was absolutely incurable given the medical conditions of that time.”
Gerstenberger, Erhard S. Leviticus : A Commentary. 1st American ed, Westminster John Knox Press, 1996. p. 156.
“At stake there is a description of who is unworthy to be part of the holy community, to approach the Lord in the holy place (Lev. 21:18). In this regard, the concerns are with states of being rather than functions. Persons who have a blemish, who are blind or lame, who have a mutilated face or a limb too long, an injured foot or hand, a hunchback , a sight defect, an itching disease or scabs, or crushed testicles, all of these are certainly capable of doing. But their specific condition describes a state of unwholeness and thus they are not permitted to join in the social behavior of group worship of God. Again, the issue is one of a state of unworthiness, not the loss of bodily activities.”
Pilch, John J. Healing in the New Testament : Insights from Medical and Mediterranean Anthropology. Fortress Press, 2000. p, 113.
Leviticus 13 links:
boils and scars
chronically contaminated
clothes and containers
deeper than the outer layer
false diagnosis
fortnight itch
from burn to worse
hope without compromise
hope without compromise-
visible devotion
jeffersonvann 