Leviticus 13:2 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Leviticus 13:2
When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy; then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests:
a son (as a builder of the family name) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
priests
הַכֹּהֲנִֽיםha.ko.ha.Nim
H3548
literally one officiating · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 24:8 Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that thou observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I…
Leviticus 14:56 And for a rising, and for a scab, and for a bright spot:
Leviticus 14:3 And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper;
Exodus 4:6-7 And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, beho…
Leviticus 14:35 And he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house:
Numbers 12:10 And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold…
Deuteronomy 17:8-9 If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being…
Deuteronomy 28:27 The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be heal…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Leviticus 13:1-17
I. Concerning the plague of leprosy we may observe in general, 1. That it was rather an uncleanness than a disease; or, at least, so the law considered it, and therefore employed not the physicians but the priests about it. Christ is said to cleanse lepers, not to cure them. We do not read of any that died of the leprosy, but it rather buried them alive, by rendering them unfit for conversation with any but such as were infected like themselves. Yet there is a tradition that Pharaoh, who sought to kill Moses, was the first that ever was struck with this disease, and that he died of it. It is said to have begun first in Egypt, whence it spread into Syria. It was very well known to Moses, when…
The plague of leprosy - This dreadful disorder has its name leprosy, from the Greek λεποα, from λεπις, a scale, because in this disease the body was often covered with thin white scales, so as to give it the appearance of snow. Hence it is said of the hand of Moses, Exo 4:6, that it was leprous as snow; and of Miriam, Num 12:10, that she became leprous, as white as snow; and of Gehazi, Kg2 5:27, that, being judicially struck with the disease of Naaman, he went out from Elisha's presence a leper as white as snow. See Clarke's note on Exo 4:6. In Hebrew this disease is termed צרעת tsaraath, from צרע mor tsara, to smite or strike; but the root in Arabic signifies to cast down or prostrate, and…
When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh,.... Rules are here given, by which a leprosy might be judged of; which, as a disease, was frequent in Egypt, where the Israelites had dwelt a long time, and from whence they were just come; and is doubtless the reason, as learned men have observed, that several Heathen writers make the cause of their expulsion from Egypt, as they choose to call it, though wrongly, their being infected with this distemper; whereas it was the reverse, not they, but the Egyptians, were incident to it (z). Moreover, the leprosy here spoken of seems not to be the same with that disease, or what we now call so, though some have thought otherwise; it being rather an u…
The Church Fathers
If a man had a scar of a white sign on his skin, and there was a touch of leprosy on the skin of his color. The text then says, as an exposition, what he had said before so that it could be understood. He had said this: If you had a white scar on your skin. So that we do not think it refers to a scar, as is usually the sign of a healed wound, it tells us that it refers to color when it adds: And there would be a touch of leprosy on the skin of its color. Leaving now what the author understands as a scar, it is a vice of color. With respect to what is called the leprosy touch, it must be said that it is not about the color being felt by touch, but that it is called a leprosy touch as if the person or his body was touched by leprosy, it was stained or flawed It is as they say: "The fever attacked him or he did not attack him." Finally, it is called touch to the own stain and it is always designated as such. That is why some of our translators have not translated "touch", but "stain". Naturally, using this word, the text seems to have a clearer meaning. But the Greek text may not have aften, that is, touch, but?, That is, stain. Therefore, amomon means immaculate. Although Scripture does not usually call amomon only to what refers to color, but to what is clean of all victo. Therefore, the Scripture does not want to be understood by momon the stain of color, but the stain of all vice. I could call spílon what refers only to color. The Apostle used this word, when he says of the Church: It has neither stain nor wrinkle (Eph. 5,27). But the author of Leviticus used neither momon nor spílon, but afén, toque, word that even in the Greek language is little used for the colors and, nevertheless, the Seventies had no difficulty in using it. Why should Latin translators have it? As for the phrase: Scar of a signal, or it is so called because it means something, or rather because it distinguishes the person from the others by a signal, because it makes it striking.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Leper, Leprosy — The predominant and characteristic form of leprosy in the Old Testament is a white variety, covering either the entire body or a large tract of its surface, which has obtained the name of Lepra…
Leprosy — (Heb. tsara’ath, a “smiting,” a “stroke,” because the disease was regarded as a direct providential infliction). This name is from the Greek lepra, by which the Greek physicians designated the…
Purification — The process by which a person unclean, according to the Levitical law, and thereby cut off from the sanctuary and the festivals, was restored to the enjoyment of all these privileges. The great…
Diseases · Mentioned in scripture: Leprosy — Mentioned in scripture: Leprosy
Leprosy · Often began with a bright red spot — Often began with a bright red spot
Priests · Services of: Deciding in cases of leprosy — Services of: Deciding in cases of leprosy
Sanitation · CONTAGION — CONTAGION
Scab · Disease of the skin — Disease of the skin
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
When a man shall have in the skin. Since every eruption was not the leprosy, and did not render a man unclean, when God appoints the priests to be the judges, He distinguishes by certain marks a common eruption from the leprosy; and then subjoins the difference between the various kinds of leprosy. For the disease was not always incurable; but, only when the blood was altogether corrupted, so that the skin itself had become hardened by its corrosion, or swollen by its diseased state. This, then, must be observed in the first place, that the Greek and Latin word lepra, and the Hebrew tsrt tzaragmath, extend further than to the incurable disease, which medical men call elephantiasis [4] both o…
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 migh…
Skin disorders that were potentially contagious, such as swelling or a rash or discolored skin, required precautions to arrest their spread. Until a disorder was healed, the person was deemed unclean. The diseases described in this section may range from something as simple as an allergic rash, ringworm, or eczema to something as serious as gangrene. In Old Testament times, skin conditions were diagnosed by observation. The priests not only had a religious function, but they also served as physicians. • one of his sons: These priestly functions were to apply to future generations of priests as well.
Rashi on Leviticus 13:2
'שאת או ספחת וגו — These are the names of leprous plagues — A RISING, A SCAB etc., — and they are the one whiter than the other (cf. Shevuot 5b; Sifra, Tazria Parashat Nega'im, Section 1 4).
בהרת means SPOTS, taie in O. F. — Similar is (Job 37:21) “It is a spot (בהיר) in the skies”.
'אל אהרון וגו [HE SHALL BE BROUGHT] TO AARON etc. — It is an enactment of Scripture that the uncleanness and purification of leprous plagues are pronounced only by the mouth of a priest (Sifra, Tazria Parashat Nega'im, Section 1 9).
