Matthew Henry on Leviticus 13:38-46
We have here,
I. Provisos that neither a freckled skin nor a bald head should be mistaken for a leprosy, Lev 13:38-41. Every deformity must not forthwith be made a ceremonial defilement. Elisha was jeered for his bald head (Kg2 2:23); but it was the children of Bethel, that knew not the judgments of their God, who turned it to his reproach.
II. A particular brand set upon the leprosy if at any time it did appear in a bald head: The plague is in his head, he is utterly unclean, Lev 13:44. If the leprosy of sin have seized the head, if the judgment be corrupted, and wicked principles which countenance and support wicked practices, be embraced, it is an utter uncleanness, from which few are eve…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Leviticus 13:40
bald . . . forehead bald--The falling off of the hair, when the baldness commences in the back part of the head, is another symptom which creates a suspicion of leprosy. But it was not of itself a decisive sign unless taken in connection with other tokens, such as a "sore of a reddish white color" [Lev 13:43]. The Hebrews as well as other Orientals were accustomed to distinguish between the forehead baldness, which might be natural, and that baldness which might be the consequence of disease.
Adam Clarke on Leviticus 13:33
The scall shall he not shave - Lest the place should be irritated and inflamed, and assume in consequence other appearances besides those of a leprous infection; in which case the priest might not be able to form an accurate judgment.
John Gill on Leviticus 13:42
And if there be,.... Or, "but if there be", or, "when there shall be" (y), or shall appear to be:
in the bald head, or in the bald forehead, a white reddish sore; white and red mixed, as the Targum of Jonathan, having something of both colours, neither a clear white nor thorough red; though, according to Bochart, it should be rendered "a white sore exceeding bright"; See Gill on Leviticus 13:19,
it is a leprosy sprung up in his bald head, or in his bald forehead; the signs of which were raw flesh and spreading; so it is said in the Misnah (z),"those two sorts of baldness defile in two weeks, by two signs, by quick raw flesh and by spreading;''if there was the bright spot and no quick flesh…
