Whether [it be] in the warp, or woof, of linen, or
of
woollen
When these are woven and mixed together, it seems difficult, if
not impossible, to judge whether the plague of leprosy was in the
one or in the other; one would think it should be unavoidably in
both; wherefore Castalio renders the words, whether "in the outer
part of it, or in the inner"; in the outside or inside, or what
we call the right side or the wrong side of the cloth: but to me
it seems that the warp and woof, whether of linen or woollen, are
here distinguished not only from garments made of them, but from
the cloth itself, of which they are made, and even to be
considered before they are wrought together in the loom; and,
according to the Jews, when upon the spindle F13:
whether in a skin, or anything made of skin;
that is, whether in unwrought skin, which is not made up in
anything, or in anything that is made of skins, as tents, bottles
but skins of fishes, according to the Jewish traditions, are
excepted; for so they say F14, sea skins, i.e. skins of
fishes, are not defiled by plagues (of leprosy); for which the
commentators F15 give this reason, that as wool and
linen are of things which grow out of the earth, so must the
skins be; that is, of such animals as live by grass, that springs
out of the earth; but if anything was joined unto them, which
grew out of the earth, though but a thread, that received
uncleanness, it was defiled.
F13 Misn. Negaim, c. 11. sect. 8.
F14 Misn. Negaim, c. 11. sect. 1.
F15 Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Edait, c. 7. sect. 8.