Leviticus 13:55

55 And the priest shall look on the sore after the washing, and behold, if the sore have not changed its appearance, and the sore have not spread, it is unclean: thou shalt burn it with fire: it is a fretting sore on what is threadbare or where the nap is gone.

Leviticus 13:55 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 13:55

And the priest shall look on the plague after it is washed,
&c.] That is, on the second seventh day, or thirteenth day from his first inspection of it: and, behold, [if] the plague has not changed its colour; and the
plague be not spread, it [is] unclean, thou shalt burn it in the fire;
if it remains just as it was at first, very green or very red, and has not diminished of its colour at all, nor changed from one colour to another, although it should not have spread itself, yet it is defiled, and to be burnt without the camp, as before; that which spreads itself here and there, it is to be burnt: it [is] after inward, [whether] it [be] bare within or without;
that is, whether it be threadbare on the wrong or right side of the garment, the nap being eaten off by the leprosy; which shows it to be a fretting, eating, and corroding one: in the Hebrew text it is, "in the boldness of the hinder", or "in the baldness of the fore part"; they are the same words which are used of the boldness of the back part and fore part of the head, ( Leviticus 13:42 Leviticus 13:43 ) ; the nap being off either of the outer and right side of the cloth, or of the inner and wrong side, made it look like a bald head, whether before or behind.

Leviticus 13:55 In-Context

53 But if the priest look, and behold, the sore hath not spread in the garment, or in the warp, or in the woof, or in anything of skin,
54 then the priest shall command that they wash the thing wherein the sore is, and he shall shut it up seven days a second time.
55 And the priest shall look on the sore after the washing, and behold, if the sore have not changed its appearance, and the sore have not spread, it is unclean: thou shalt burn it with fire: it is a fretting sore on what is threadbare or where the nap is gone.
56 But if the priest look, and behold, the sore hath become pale after the washing of it, then he shall rend it from the garment, or from the skin, or from the warp, or from the woof.
57 And if it appear still in the garment, or in the warp, or in the woof, or in anything of skin, it is a [leprosy] breaking out: thou shalt burn with fire that wherein the sore is.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Or 'colour;' lit. 'eye.'
  • [b]. The words are the same as in vers. 42 and 43, applied to the head, and here alone used thus.
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.