Leviticus 13:49

49 then if the stain on the garment, hide, threads, woven-in parts or leather item is greenish or reddish, it is an infection of tzara'at and is to be shown to the cohen.

Leviticus 13:49 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 13:49

And if the plague be greenish or reddish the garment, or in
the skin
Either of these two colours were signs of leprosy in garments; but it is not agreed whether stronger or weaker colours are designed; the radicals of both these words being doubled, according to some, and particularly Aben Ezra, lessen the sense of them; and so our translators understand it; but, according to Ben Gersom, the signification is increased thereby, and the meaning is, if it be exceeding green or exceeding red; and this is evidently the sense of the Misnah ^F16; garments are defiled by green in greens, and by red in reds, that is, by the greenest and reddest; the green, the commentators say ^F17, is like that of the wings of peacocks and leaves of palm trees, and the red like crimson or scarlet; and now these garments or skins, in which the green or red spots appeared, must be white, and not coloured or dyed: the canon runs thus ^F18; skins and garments dyed are not defiled with plagues (of leprosy); a garment whose warp is dyed, and its woof white, or its woof dyed, and its warp white, all goes according to the sight; that is, according to what colour to the eye most prevails, whether white or dyed:

either in the warp or in the woof, or in anything of the skin;
the same held good of these as of a garment, or anything else made of them:

it [is] a plague of leprosy;
it has the signs of one, and gives great suspicion that it is one:

and shall be shewed unto the priest;
by the person in whose possession it is, that it may be examined and judged of whether it is a leprosy or no.

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FOOTNOTES:

F16 Misn. Negaim, c. 11. sect. 4.
F17 Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Edaiot, c. 7. sect. 8.
F18 Misn. ut supra, (c.11.) sect. 3, 4.

Leviticus 13:49 In-Context

47 "When tzara'at infects an article of clothing, whether it be a woolen or a linen garment,

48 on the threads or the woven-in parts of either linen or wool, or on a hide or item made of leather;

49 then if the stain on the garment, hide, threads, woven-in parts or leather item is greenish or reddish, it is an infection of tzara'at and is to be shown to the cohen.

50 The cohen is to examine the stain and isolate the article that has the infection for seven days.

51 On the seventh day he is to examine the stain; if the stain has spread on the garment, threads, woven-in parts or leather, whatever its use, the infection is a contagious tzara'at; the garment is unclean.